Four Key Questions to Guide Human Rights-based Social Listening during Infodemics

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Human Rights Law
• Digital Ethics

Background:

• Infodemics, or the rapid spread of misinformation during health crises like COVID-19, pose significant public health challenges.
• Social listening tools are increasingly used to monitor and counter infodemics, but raise human rights concerns.
• Existing frameworks often lack specific guidance on ethically deploying social listening in public health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore a human rights-based approach to social listening for countering infodemics.
• To examine the intersection of social listening, infodemics, and human rights (health, life, free speech, privacy).
• To propose ethical guardrails and principles for rights-compliant social listening in public health.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of human rights law principles related to health, life, free speech, and privacy.
• Case study application using COVID-19 infodemics as a primary example.
• Development of a framework with key questions to guide rights-based social listening.

Main Results:

• Human rights frameworks can provide essential guardrails against unethical social listening practices.
• A rights-based approach can enhance the equity, ethics, and effectiveness of social listening as a public health tool.
• Four critical questions are proposed to frame the ethical considerations of social listening: Why, How, Who, and What outcomes.

Conclusions:

• Integrating human rights principles is crucial for the ethical and effective use of social listening in public health.
• Social listening, when rights-compliant, can be a powerful tool for managing infodemics and protecting public well-being.
• Further research and policy development are needed to operationalize a human rights-based approach to social listening.