The United Nations (UN) is developing a “digital army” in order to continue its battle against online misinformation.
“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,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in a policy brief.
“It has become clear that business as usual is not an option,” he added.
Leading the effort is MONUSCO, the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
MONUSCO supported a workshop to train “a digital army capable of detecting false information” by creating content that spread “objective, credible information,” according to the UN.
“This is a war that is going on through social media, the radio, and traditional news outlets,” said the head of MONUSCO Bintou Keita.
Reporting from Reclaim the Net:
Then there’s something called the UN Verified initiative, which offers a course free of charge that is supposed to “educate” people in these physically dangerous places on how to keep themselves safe from – online “misinformation.” This effort expands on several basic topics, including how to recognize “disinformation,” and the UN will also tell you why it is being spread.
