There are moments in global debates when a concept becomes so technical, institutional, and wrapped in the language of risk models and geopolitical frameworks that it loses sight of the human being at its center. Misinformation is one of those concepts. It is discussed in reports, quantified in graphs, and analyzed in conferences. Yet for those of us who have worked in fragile settings, conflict zones, and communities where trust is a scarce resource, misinformation is not an abstract threat. It is a lived experience.
Reading The Lancet Commission on rethinking misinformation, health, and human security (June 6, 2026), I found myself agreeing with the urgency but sensing a gap, a missing heartbeat. The article captures the scale of the problem, but not its soul. It describes the threat, but not the people who carry its weight. This reflection attempts to restore the human dimension that often disappears in global analyses.
1. When misinformation becomes a silent weapon
In armed conflicts, misinformation is not a digital inconvenience. It is a silent weapon.
I have seen it shape who seeks care and who refuses it.
I have seen it turn communities against health workers.
I have seen it spread faster than any virus.
I also remember families who were unsure whom to believe. Their decisions were shaped not only by facts, but by fear, past disappointments, and the voices they trusted most. These moments revealed that misinformation is rarely about ignorance. It is about trust, and trust cannot be restored through information alone.
False reports about safe evacuation routes, fabricated warnings of attacks, or misleading information about humanitarian assistance can push civilians into danger and delay life-saving aid. In these settings, misinformation becomes another layer of insecurity imposed on populations already living under extreme stress.
It feeds on fear, trauma, and histories of marginalization. It thrives where institutions have failed and where people have learned, often painfully, that official narratives do not always protect them.
This is why misinformation cannot be understood only as a technological or geopolitical threat. Before it is either of those things, it is a human threat. It erodes trust before it harms bodies.
2. The limits of the dominant narrative
The global conversation often assumes that people fall for misinformation because they lack knowledge. But knowledge is rarely the issue.
People reject scientific evidence not because they are irrational, but because they are wounded.
Because they have been excluded.
Because they have been spoken at, not spoken with.
The Lancet article acknowledges the erosion of trust, but it treats it at a distance. Trust is not a variable in a model. It is a relationship. It is built slowly, lost quickly, and rebuilt only through human connection, not fact checking alone.
The deeper problem is not only false information. It is the absence of protective social structures that help communities interpret uncertainty with dignity rather than fear.
During health emergencies, false rumors about vaccines, treatments, or disease transmission have discouraged families from seeking care, delayed life-saving interventions, and placed health workers at risk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation contributed to vaccine hesitancy in many countries, undermining public health efforts even where safe vaccines were available. These experiences show that misinformation is measured not only in false claims but in lost opportunities to protect life.
3. Human security: returning the conversation to people
Human security offers a different starting point.
It asks what this phenomenon does to the individual, to their dignity, their agency, and their safety.
Through this lens, misinformation becomes a threat because it:
• undermines the right to health
• destabilizes psychological safety in communities
• fuels polarization and violence
• weakens the social fabric needed for peace
• distorts understanding of risks related to conflict, climate, and disease
Human security reminds us that the ultimate victim of misinformation is not the health system, but the person who loses the ability to make informed, safe, and dignified choices.
4. The missing dimension: community and volunteerism
Two decades ago, when we worked on the Arab Declaration on Volunteering, we were not focused on misinformation. Yet we were focused on trust, dignity, and the power of communities to protect themselves.
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Today, that experience feels increasingly relevant.
Volunteer based human security, grounded in local knowledge, proximity, and empathy, offers something global systems cannot easily replicate: the ability to rebuild trust from the ground up.
Societies invest heavily in digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and information systems. Yet they invest far less in the human infrastructure of trust, including community organizations, local volunteers, health workers, educators, and trusted local leaders.
Misinformation cannot be defeated by algorithms alone.
It requires:
• community health workers
• local volunteers
• trusted messengers
• people who understand fears behind rumors
This human infrastructure of trust remains one of the most neglected dimensions of global response.
5. Peace, conflict, and fragile truth
In post-conflict environments, misinformation becomes a barrier to reconciliation.
It keeps wounds open.
It fuels narratives of victimhood and blame.
It undermines peace agreements before they take root.
In humanitarian disarmament and peacebuilding, misinformation distorts threat perceptions, weakens public support, and creates suspicion that blocks dialogue and verification.
If we are serious about peace and human security, we must see misinformation not only as a consequence of conflict, but as one of its sustaining forces.
6. Closing reflection
In the end, misinformation tests more than communication systems.
It tests our ability to care.
To listen.
To rebuild.
To protect fragile social bonds.
If we fail to see the human being behind the rumor, we fail to understand the phenomenon itself. And if we fail to understand it, we fail to protect those human security was created for.
Building resilient societies requires more than stronger information systems. It requires stronger communities, empowered volunteers, trusted institutions, and policies that place human dignity at the center of communication.
Protecting people from misinformation is not only about defending factual truth. It is about strengthening trust, dignity, and the relationships that allow societies to withstand crisis, recover from conflict, and sustain human security.
Ghassan Shahrour, coordinator of Arab Human Security Network, is a medical doctor, writer, and human rights advocate specializing in health, disability, disarmament, and human security. Find Ghassan on X @GhassanShahrour
A version of this article was originally posted at Counter Currents and is reposted here under fair use guidelines. Any reposting should credit both the GLP and original article. Find Counter Currents on X @Countercurrents
