UN Calls for Combating Fake News on Internet

United Nations called for combating fake news on the internet, noting that the new paradigm of information manipulation in the digital age has exposed gaps, weaknesses, and ambiguities in international law.

In a statement released on Monday, the UN urged world states to ensure that all measures to combat disinformation online and offline were fully in line with international human rights standards.

The information environment has become a dangerous thereat of war in the digital age, according to Irene Khan, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression.

Presenting her report on disinformation and freedom of opinion and expression during armed conflicts, Khan noted that State and armed groups, enabled by digital technology and social media, were weaponizing information to sow confusion, feed hate, incite violence, discredit human rights defenders, disrupt humanitarian activities and prolong the conflict.

In her speech to the General Assembly last week, Khan said: “Information has long been manipulated by States and armed groups to deceive and demoralize the enemy. But what is new and deeply worrying in today’s conflicts is the scale, spread, and speed of disinformation, propaganda and hate speech, targeting civilians, particularly vulnerable and marginalized groups. It undermines human rights with audacity and impunity."

She continued: “During armed conflict, people are at their most vulnerable and in great need of accurate, trustworthy information to ensure their own safety and well-being. Yet that is precisely when they are being hit with manipulated information, internet shutdowns or slowdowns, information blackouts and other restrictions on information."

“The right to information is not a legitimate target of war,” the Special Rapporteur pointed out.

Khan stressed that the freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to seek, receive and disseminate diverse sources of information, must be upheld by States in times of crises and armed conflict as a precious ‘survival right’ on which people’s lives, health, safety, security and dignity depend.

 “Factual information and independent media are delegitimized as ‘fake news’, and UN human rights reports are discredited while patently false government propaganda is promoted as facts.” 

In the same connection, Khan indicated that the new paradigm of information manipulation in the digital age has exposed gaps, weaknesses and ambiguities in international law. She called for international humanitarian law to be strengthened so that the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the information environment can be better protected during armed conflict.