HUMANITARIAN FUTURES FOR MESSAGING APPS UNDERSTANDING THE OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS FOR HUMANITARIAN ACTION Syrian refugees, landed on Lesbos in Greece, looking for a mobile signal to check their location and notify relatives that they arrived safely. International Committee of the Red Cross 19, avenue de la Paix 1202 Geneva, Switzerland T +41 22 734 60 01 F +41 22 733 20 57 E-mail:
[email protected] www.icrc.org January 2017 Front cover: I. Prickett/UNHCR HUMANITARIAN FUTURES FOR MESSAGING APPS UNDERSTANDING THE OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS FOR HUMANITARIAN ACTION This report, commissioned by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is the product of a collaboration between the ICRC, The Engine Room and Block Party. The content of this report does not reflect the official opinion of the ICRC. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the report lies entirely with The Engine Room and Block Party. Commissioning Editors: Jacobo Quintanilla and Philippe Stoll (ICRC). Lead Researcher: Tom Walker (The Engine Room). Content: Eytan Oren (Block Party), Zara Rahman (The Engine Room), Nisha Thompson, and Carly Nyst. Editors: Michael Wells and John Borland. Project Manager: Waiyee Leong (ICRC). The ICRC, The Engine Room and Block Party request due acknowledgement and quotes from this publication to be referenced as: ICRC, The Engine Room and Block Party, Humanitarian Futures for Messaging Apps, January 2017. This report is available at www.icrc.org, https://theengineroom.org and http://weareblockparty.com. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.