Minorities, Advocates and Digital Harms: Evaluating Support and Guidance Materials

This paper reports findings from a study of the wellbeing, support and remedy guidance needs among minority communities subject to digital harms. The study developed and tested six guidance documents specifically for minority populations: online abuse and harassment; disinformation; scams; doxxing, deepfakes and how to report digital harms. Organizations which provide support services and/or advocate for minority groups—CALD and migrant communities, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and older people—were invited to evaluate the draft guidelines. Participating organizations overwhelmingly felt that each of the issues were serious for their communities, but considered guidelines targeting minorities ‘in general’ rather than particular communities did not address specific needs or allow marginalized people to see themselves represented. Some reported that the format, language and readability may be inaccessible to some minority populations. The study found that generic guidelines to help protect users’ wellbeing, increase knowledge of digital harms and manage remediation were deemed less useful, in favor of co-designed community-specific guidelines.