In the words of Ron Weasley, the UN needs to sort out its priorities. The corrupt United Nations (UN) issued a new report demanding increased censorship — ahem, “content moderation”— online to deal with the supposed “existential risk” of “hate speech” and “disinformation.” This is the same UN, however, that continually panders to the terrorist-supporting Palestinians and the tyrannical and murderous Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As usual, the UN is focused on the wrong “crisis.”
The newly released UN report has all kinds of doom to prophecy if there isn’t more suppression of any narratives the powers-that-be happen to find inconvenient. As independent journalist Michael Shellenberger noted on June 19, there really isn’t definitive evidence that “hate speech” is rising online. But since when did the UN allow facts to interfere with its propaganda?
Platforms “have enabled the rapid spread of lies and hate, causing real harm on a global scale,” the UN report announces. “Optimism over the potential of social media to connect and engage people has been dampened as mis- and disinformation and hate speech have surged from the margins of digital space into the mainstream.” The UN report desires governments, media, and tech companies to come together in a glorious anti-free speech effort.
”The danger cannot be overstated,” the UN report gibbers. “Social media-enabled hate speech and disinformation can lead to violence and death. The ability to disseminate large-scale disinformation to undermine scientifically established facts poses an existential risk to humanity…and endangers democratic institutions and fundamental human rights.” You will be relieved to know that the UN is on the job, ready to save the day. The UN has been lying about “climate change” for literally decades, but yet the UN is supposed to determine what is “disinformation”?
The UN is totally untrustworthy—and ignores real dangers to scare-monger about exaggerated risks. For instance, even though a nation of “Palestine” has never existed, the current “Palestinians” are a conglomeration of other peoples (they are more accurately called “Arabs”), and the Palestinian Authority is largely controlled by terrorists, the UN pushes Palestinian lies. The UN falsely accused Israel of “apartheid” and claims that Israel is occupying Palestinian land.
The Arabs originally (early 1900s) enjoyed more concessions from the British and refused an offer of much of the land of what is now legitimately and legally Israel. (Israel, of course, did exist as a nation previously in history—anyone who has read the Bible knows that). The Arabs — or, as they now call themselves, “Palestinians” — have repeatedly refused offers of their own state while carrying out thousands of terrorist attacks annually on Israel. But none of that matters to the UN, which should remember all these facts, since it was involved in modern Israel’s statehood almost from the beginning.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has a history of nauseating pandering to the CCP, tweeted about “disinformation” as if it were responsible for the gravest catastrophes in the world. Of course, Guterres personally spreads lies about Israel and the Palestinians, and pushed destructive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. But we’re supposed to trust him to tell governments and tech companies how to regulate content and what speech should be allowed.
Alarm over generative AI, as relevant as it is, must not obscure damage being done by digital tech enabling the spread of hate speech, mis- & disinformation now.
Fueling conflict & destruction.
Threatening democracy & human rights.
Undermining public health & #ClimateAction. pic.twitter.com/XlisItDQIG
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) June 12, 2023
The CCP is the greatest mass-murdering regime in history. Among the CCP’s many recent or ongoing crimes are the genocide against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, cultural genocide against Tibetans, the harsh persecution of Chinese Christians and other religious minorities, disastrous and deadly COVID-19 lockdowns, and the recent crackdown on anti-regime protesters that was reportedly so bad it was called “Tiananmen 2.0.” Yet Guterres, as I exclusively reported in 2021, took the opportunity of the CCP’s centenary to call Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and praise the CCP’s “great achievements!” And the UN head has continued to be a sycophant toward China; it recently had praise for China in March 2023.
In fact, the UN held its April World Data Forum, which released the Hangzhou Declaration “calling for the release of a data management approach to better address problems facing achieving sustainable development goals,” in China. CCP state media was delighted.
Why the UN would hold a tech forum in a country with a dictatorial regime that steals other nations’ tech and that exercises draconian censorship is beyond my comprehension, but that’s what the UN did. It legitimized the evil CCP by hosting its conference in China and pretending that the CCP could have valuable input on “humanitarian…issues.” The Uyghurs in concentration camps and the jailed religious and political dissidents in China would probably have a word or two to say on that score.
Yet the UN, with all this hypocrisy and support for violent governments, is lecturing about the “existential risk” of “hate speech.” As I wrote for MRC Free Speech America, the UN report proposed “scaled-up responses” among its supposed solutions, including increased “fact checking” and “mitigation strategies” to suppress free speech. The new report also advised investment in artificial intelligence (AI) tools for content moderation and measures to prevent some free speech, or “stronger disincentives.” Much of this seems in line with the UNESCO campaign (launched last year in partnership with Twitter) to “pre-bunk” alleged “disinformation” online.
The UN should be focusing on truly violent threats, like Islamic terrorists and the genocidal CCP. Instead, it’s screeching about “hate speech.” And that’s precisely why the UN is not to be trusted.