June 24, 2022 – Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has urged the United Nations to establish an inter-agency task force to fight disinformation and raise public awareness through information campaigns to build societal resistance and resilience against it.
On Thursday, Bilawal delivered a virtual address to a meeting of the Group of Friends on Countering Disinformation for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. He stressed the need for an international plan of action to “counter disinformation online and offline, in the public and private domains”.
“The exponential proliferation of disinformation, especially through online platforms and social media, has spread social discord, fostered hate speech, racism, discrimination, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and exasperated competing nationalisms and inter-state tensions and conflict,” said Bilawal. “Disinformation has often justified and intensified the violations of human rights. This pandemic of disinformation must be confronted, countered, and defeated at the national and international level.”
Disinformation can be countered only through comprehensive international cooperation, said the minister, adding that Pakistan, together with a number of like-minded countries, took the initiative against disinformation in the UN General Assembly.
“We should enhance public awareness about disinformation through information campaigns promoted by member states and the United Nations and build societal resistance and resistance against disinformation,” he said.
Following are some of the key suggestions FM Bilawal put forward to counter disinformation globally.
- Enhance the capacity of governments and their relevant institutions to detect, analyse, and expose disinformation and disinformation campaigns and networks
- The UN and its agencies should help to build the capacity of member states, especially the developing countries, to analyse, fact-check and filter information
- Financial and technical support should be extended to national and international research institutions which are involved in the detection of false information
- Make a concentrated effort through cooperation to minimise the negative impact of disinformation on human rights relations between communities and states by building firewalls against false information, ensuring transparency; adhering to human rights principles such as respect for personal privacy and reputation; and preventing the propagation of racism, discrimination and hate speech
- The UN can develop best practices and guidelines, including through the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), to serve as guidelines for national and international action
- The UN can develop rules, standards and regulations for adherence by the private sector, social media companies and other non-governmental actors
Bilawal also proposed the creation of an inter-agency task force by the UN Secretary-General on disinformation and appointment of a focal person for regular and ongoing interactions with member states, private media, and online companies and stakeholders.
