UNESCO’s Internet for Trust conference calls for regulation of digital platforms

UNESCO’s Internet for Trust Conference, held from Feb. 21 to 23, brought together 4,300 participants in Paris, France, to discuss regulatory solutions to the ongoing crisis of online disinformation.

Speakers and participants at the event included UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Julia Angwin, UN Undersecretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming, UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan, Facebook whistleblowers Daniel Motaung and Christopher Wylie, and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Roberto Barroso.

“The blurring of boundaries between true and false, the highly organized denial of scientific facts, the amplification of disinformation and conspiracies were not born on social media, but have found fertile ground there, much more than truth,” said Azoulay in her opening speech.

While these dangers are the result of personal behavior, they are driven more by the algorithms used by platforms that harness personal data, she explained.

Between now and the end of 2024, more than 90 elections will take place worldwide and over 2 million people will be called to cast their votes. “We cannot allow this democratic process to be swayed by dealers of disinformation,” Azoulay said.

In her keynote speech, Ressa said: “For some reason, facts are really boring. Lies — especially when laced with fear, with anger, with hate, with tribalism — … spread. It’s like throwing a lit match into kindling.

“Lies spread faster than facts,” she added.

She warned that if people continue to tolerate social media algorithms that reward lies, future generations will inherit a world in which truth has been dangerously devalued.

“Without facts, you can’t have truth; without truth, you can’t have trust; without these three, we have no shared reality; we cannot solve any problem, (and) we have no democracy,” Ressa said.

Azoulay asserted the need for guidelines to shape the rules applicable to platforms. Regulating digital platforms is urgent, but tricky, “if we want regulation to uphold rather than erode freedom of expression and human rights,” she explained.

“If we do not think of solutions built around these rights, we leave the field open to dangerous incursions on freedoms,” she added.

There are currently at least 55 countries working on regulatory initiatives, but Azoulay advocated for a global approach.

“If these regulatory initiatives are developed in isolation, with each country working in (its) own corner, they are doomed to fail. Information disruption is, by definition, a global problem, so our reflections must take place at the global scale,” she said.