Information must remain a “global common good”. This was emphasized by Director-General Audrey Azoulay of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) during the first-ever “Internet for Trust” Conference that discussed draft global guidelines for social media regulation, which aims to improve information reliability and the promotion of human rights online.
According to UNESCO’s brief published on its official website, over 4,000 participants coming from regulatory bodies, governments, digital companies and civil society have come together in Paris last week, and took part in discussions and consultations in order to develop guidelines that “focus on structures and processes needed to ensure users have a safer and more critical interaction with online content, to simultaneously support freedom of expression and the availability of accurate and reliable information in the public sphere.”
During the conference, Azoulay pointed out, “the blurring of boundaries between true and false, the highly organized denial of scientific facts, the amplification of disinformation and conspiracies – these did not originate on social networks.” However, “in the absence of regulation, lies flourish on social media much better than the truth” she stressed.
She further urged countries to act together in fighting disinformation. The three-day conference was the most recent step in developing solutions for regulating digital platforms globally.
The UNESCO official emphasized that it is only by taking the full measure of technological revolution that freedom of expression and democracy can be ensured.
Among the speakers was 2021 Nobel Peace laureate Maria Ressa who highlighted the urgent need to establish common global guidelines to ensure that information remains reliable and that human rights are not trampled upon.
In her speech, Ressa, chief executive officer and co-founder of Rappler, once again underscored that lies spread faster than the truth. She explained that when lies are laced with fear, anger, hate and tribalism, spread like wildfire. “It’s like throwing a lit match into kindling. Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust, and we have no shared reality,” she added.
Just a few days before the conference in Europe, MovePH and Rappler spearheaded a five-part training series on promoting media and information literacy that centered on fighting disinformation through fact-checking. I was among the thousands coming from different sectors like the academe, media and civil society who took part in the webinars that left us with valuable takeaways like “when so many lies are infiltrating cyberspace, a collaborative, multisectoral effort is also needed to address them”. This simply reminds us that we cannot just be fence sitters who will just leave the fight to those who are in the media or the academe, but that every citizen must actively take part in this cause as lies continue to pollute the web and revise history.
Faktisk founder Kristoffer Egeberg who was among the resource speakers during the webinar, explained fact-checking’s critical role in leading people to make the right decisions.
“Misinformation can lead you to make the wrong choices in life based on falsehoods – take the wrong medicine, trust the wrong politician, etc. That is the most important role fact-checkers play: we’re kind of building a vaccine against fake news, by showing the public not only what the correct answer is, but how you find the answer,” stressed Egeberg.
On the other hand, Bernice Soriano, World Bank consultant affirmed that human rights should be exercised in the digital space. However, these rights are being violated online according to her, especially in the case of marginalized groups.
Meanwhile, on the final day of the webinar series on digital media and society, former chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno underscored how important it is for citizens to know how to exact accountability from people in power in order to protect themselves from all forms of violence.
“When we don’t know how to exact accountability from power holders, ‘yung mayroong authority over us, we will not be able to protect ourselves from all kinds of violence,” asserted Sereno.
The webinars made attendees realize that there are so many opportunities for citizens to impact change. A netizen can inspire, promote, damage, build or destroy with everything at her fingertips. For starters, communities must be empowered by providing knowledge and skills to take action on issues, involve communities in spotting and fact-checking false claims on social media and figuring out what is your advocacy. MovePH emphasizes the importance of monitoring local and national issues as a must for citizens and communities as well as finding out how one can contribute best to society. There is strength in numbers!
Disinformation is a global concern. It is one of the major concerns of democratic countries as false news is articulated to manipulate public opinion and erode the stability of governments and institutions. UNESCO points out how vital collaboration is not only in the fight against disinformation but also in pressing global regulatory initiatives. The organization’s director-general pointed out that initiatives must not be done in isolation or else, it will fail.
On its website, the organization posted that 55 countries are currently working on the proliferation of regulatory initiatives. However, the organization advocates for a “coherent, global approach, based on human rights.”
Azoulay was right when she emphasized that every advocate’s reflections must take place at the global scale because information disruption is a global problem.
Every citizen must understand that collaboration is not just an alternative approach but is a necessity in fighting disinformation. Verified content as well as skills and know-how on fact-checking, must be shared by countries, regions and continents. In that way, we are able to build communities and trust.*
