1984: Thread

[grarpamp]

Propaganda Censorship MindControl Indoctrination Messaging 1984
a big local problem, now turning into a centralised globally coordinated
Mass Formation nightmare PsyOp...


https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/inside-the-un-plan-to-control-speech-online-5534524
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000387339

Inside the UN Plan to Control Speech Online
The UN is escalating its war against 'conspiracy theories' and
'misinformation' by creating an 'internet of trust.'

By Alex Newman
Nov 24, 2023

A powerful United Nations agency has unveiled a plan to regulate
social media and online communication while cracking down on what it
describes as “false information” and “conspiracy theories,” sparking
alarm among free-speech advocates and top U.S. lawmakers.
In its 59-page report released this month, the U.N. Educational,
Cultural, and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) outlined a series of
“concrete measures which must be implemented by all stakeholders:
governments, regulatory authorities, civil society, and the platforms
themselves.”

This approach includes the imposition of global policies, through
institutions such as governments and businesses, designed to stop the
spread of various forms of speech while promoting objectives such as
“cultural diversity” and “gender equality.”

In particular, the U.N. agency aims to create an “Internet of Trust”
by targeting what it calls “misinformation,” “disinformation,” “hate
speech,” and “conspiracy theories.”

Examples of expression flagged to be stopped or restricted include
concerns about elections, public health measures, and advocacy that
could constitute “incitement to discrimination.”
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, testifies remotely during a Senate
Judiciary Committee hearing on "Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020
Election," in Washington on Nov. 17, 2020. (Bill Clark-Pool/Getty
Images) Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, testifies remotely during a
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Censorship, Suppression, and
the 2020 Election," in Washington on Nov. 17, 2020. (Bill
Clark-Pool/Getty Images)

Critics are warning that allegations of “disinformation” and
“conspiracy theories” have increasingly been used by powerful forces
in government and Big Tech to silence true information and even core
political speech.

Just this month, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee released a report
blasting the “pseudoscience of disinformation.”

Among other concerns, the committee found this “pseudoscience” has
been “weaponized” by what lawmakers refer to as the “Censorship
Industrial Complex.”

The goal: silence constitutionally-protected political speech, mostly
by conservatives.
"The pseudoscience of disinformation is now—and has always
been—nothing more than a political ruse most frequently targeted at
communities and individuals holding views contrary to the prevailing
narratives,” states the congressional report, "The Weaponization of
‘Disinformation’ Pseudo-Experts and Bureaucrats."

Indeed, many of the policies called for by UNESCO have already been
implemented by U.S.-based digital platforms, often at the behest of
the Biden administration, the latest congressional report makes clear.
Deputy Director of UNESCO Xing Qu (2nd R) views some ancient
manuscripts on March 31, 2021. (MICHELE CATTANI/AFP via Getty Images)
Deputy Director of UNESCO Xing Qu (2nd R) views some ancient
manuscripts on March 31, 2021. (MICHELE CATTANI/AFP via Getty Images)

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers nevertheless expressed alarm about the new
UNESCO plan.

“I have repeatedly and publicly criticized the Biden administration’s
misguided decision to rejoin UNESCO, putting U.S. taxpayers on the
hook for hundreds of millions of dollars,” House Foreign Affairs
Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times
regarding the social-media plan.

Calling UNESCO a “deeply flawed entity,” Mr. McCaul said he is
especially concerned that the organization “promotes the interests of
authoritarian regimes—including the Chinese Communist Party.”
Indeed, UNESCO, like many other U.N. agencies, includes multiple
members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in its leadership ranks,
such as Deputy Director-General Xing Qu, The Epoch Times has reported.

The CCP has repeatedly made clear that even while working in
international organizations, CCP members are expected to follow
communist party orders.

Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Subcommittee dealing with
international organizations are currently working to cut or reduce
funding to various U.N. agencies that lawmakers say are using U.S.
taxpayer money improperly.

Already, the U.S. government has twice exited UNESCO—under the Reagan
and the Trump administrations—due to concerns about what the
administrations described as extremism, hostility to American values,
and other problems.
The Biden administration rejoined earlier this year over the
objections of lawmakers, The Epoch Times reported.
An aerial view of a sculpture at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on
July 25, 2023. President Joe Biden rejoined the United States into
UNESCO after President Donald Trump exited the agency in 2018.
(BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images) An aerial view of a sculpture at
the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on July 25, 2023. President Joe Biden
rejoined the United States into UNESCO after President Donald Trump
exited the agency in 2018. (BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)
The UNESCO Plan
While being marketed as a plan to uphold free expression, the new
UNESCO regulatory regime calls for international censorship by
“independent” regulators who are “shielded from political and economic
interests.”

"National, regional, and global governance systems should be able to
cooperate and share practices … in addressing content that could be
permissibly restricted under international human rights law and
standards,” the report explains.

Unlike the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting any
governmental infringement on the right to free speech or free press,
UNESCO points to various international “human rights” instruments that
it says should determine what speech to infringe on.

These agreements include the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), which states that restricting freedom of
expression must be provided for by law and must also serve a
“legitimate aim.”
In a recent review of the United States, a U.N. human-rights committee
called for changes to the U.S. Constitution and demanded that the U.S.
government do more to stop and punish “hate speech” in order to comply
with the ICCPR.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), joined by members of the
Asian Pacific American Caucus, speaks on the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act
at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 18, 2021. (Kevin
Dietsch/Getty Images) Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.),
joined by members of the Asian Pacific American Caucus, speaks on the
COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 18,
2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Another key U.N. instrument is the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, which states explicitly in Article 29 that “rights and
freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and
principles of the United Nations.”

In short, the U.N. view of “freedom of expression” is radically
different from that enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

The UNESCO report says that once content that should be restricted is
found, social-media platforms must take measures, ranging from using
algorithm suppression (shadow banning) and warning users about the
content, to de-monetizing and even removing it.

Any digital platforms found to not be “dealing with content that could
be permissibly restricted under international human rights law” should
“be held accountable” with “enforcement measures,” the report states.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, a former French culture
minister with the Socialist Party, cited risks to society to justify
the global plan.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay makes a speech at the UNESCO
headquarters in Paris on Nov. 8, 2023. (GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP
via Getty Images) UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay makes a
speech at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Nov. 8, 2023. (GEOFFROY
VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty Images)

"Digital technology has enabled immense progress on freedom of
speech,” she said in a statement. “But social media platforms have
also accelerated and amplified the spread of false information and
hate speech, posing major risks to societal cohesion, peace, and
stability.

“To protect access to information, we must regulate these platforms
without delay, while at the same time protecting freedom of expression
and human rights," said Azoulay, who took over the U.N. agency from
longtime Bulgarian Communist Party leader Irina Bokova.

In the forward to the new report, headlined “Guidelines for the
Governance of Digital Platforms,” Azoulay says that stopping certain
forms of speech and at the same time preserving “freedom of
expression” is “not a contradiction.”

Citing a survey commissioned by UNESCO itself, the U.N. agency also
said most people around the world support its agenda.

According to UNESCO, the report and the guidelines were developed
through a process of consultation including more than 1,500
submissions and over 10,000 comments from “stakeholders” such as
governments, businesses, and non-profit organizations.

UNESCO said it will work with governments and companies to implement
the regulatory regime around the world.

“UNESCO is by not (sic) proposing to regulate digital platforms,” a
spokesman for UNESCO, who asked not to be named, told The Epoch Times
in a statement.

“We are, however, conscious that dozens of governments around the
world are already drafting legislation to do so, some of which is not
in line with international human rights standards, and may even
jeopardize freedom of expression.

“Similarly, the platforms themselves are already making millions of
human and automated decisions a day with respect to the moderation and
curation of content, based upon their own policies,” the spokesman
said.

The European Union, which already places severe limitations on free
expression online, has already provided funding for implementation
worldwide, UNESCO added.

The Biden administration told The Epoch Times that it wasn't involved
in creating the plan.
“We will reserve comment until we finish carefully studying the plan,”
the State Department said in an email.
Free Speech Concern Grows
Concerns over the implications for freedom of speech and free
expression online are mounting as awareness of the UNESCO plan
spreads.

Sarah McLaughlin, a senior scholar at the Foundation for Individual
Rights and Expression (FIRE), expressed alarm.

"FIRE appreciates that UNESCO’s new action plan for social media
recognizes the value of transparency and the need for protecting
freedom of expression, but remains deeply concerned about efforts to
regulate online ‘disinformation’ and ‘hate speech,’” Ms. McLaughlin
told The Epoch Times.
People participate in a "Demand Free Speech" rally at Freedom Plaza in
Washington on July 6, 2019. The demonstrators are calling for an end
to censorship by social media companies. (Stephanie Keith/Getty
Images) People participate in a "Demand Free Speech" rally at Freedom
Plaza in Washington on July 6, 2019. The demonstrators are calling for
an end to censorship by social media companies. (Stephanie Keith/Getty
Images)

“As we’ve seen in recent weeks, enforcement of the EU’s Digital
Services Act, for example, has created even more uncertainty about
platforms’ content moderation policies and users’ ability to speak
freely online,” she said. “Local legal restrictions and norms can
ultimately influence how platforms operate on a global scale.

“As countries around the world ramp up regulation of speech on the
internet, it becomes increasingly likely that platforms’ enforcement
will affect users—including Americans—outside of the states enforcing
such rules."

Indeed, across Europe, “hate speech” rules have increasingly been used
not just to silence speech on issues such as marriage, immigration,
sexuality, and religion, but even to prosecute those who violate
speech laws.

This month, Dr. Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Finnish Parliament and
the former interior minister, triumphed after a years-long “hate
speech” prosecution over her online speech supporting the biblical
understanding of homosexuality and marriage.

In Poland, several members of the European Parliament are facing
charges of “hate speech” for sharing political advertisements warning
about possible effects of mass Islamic immigration into Europe.
Even more troubling to critics is that the concept of “hate speech”
itself was introduced into the U.N. system by the Soviet Union, which
regularly described anti-communist speech as “hate speech,” explained
Jacob Mchangama in a 2011 paper for Stanford University’s Hoover
Institution.
image-5535617
Patrick Wood, founder and chairman of Citizens for Free Speech.
(citizensforfreespeech.org)

Patrick Wood, founder and chairman of Citizens for Free Speech, warned
that the UNESCO plan will certainly be used to silence critics of its
agenda.

"When UNESCO trots out statements like—'the result of extensive
worldwide consultations and is backed by a global opinion survey'—the
fix is in," Mr. Wood told The Epoch Times.

"In this case it will lead to a deluge of global programs to censor
speech deemed counter to its agenda."

The George Soros-funded Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which
styles itself “the leading nonprofit” defending free speech, said it
didn't have anyone available to comment on the UNESCO plan.

Concerns about the U.N. attitude toward free speech are not new and
have been growing in recent years—especially as so many of its member
states with agents in U.N. leadership are known for suppressing
dissent.
The new UNESCO plan also comes after the agency unveiled a plan last
year to combat what it described as “conspiracy theories” and
“misinformation” through education, The Epoch Times reported at the
time.

According to the organization, “conspiracy theories” can “reduce trust
in public institutions” and cause problems, such as decreasing
people’s desire to “reduce their carbon footprint.”
People protest against coronavirus-related restrictions and government
policy in Berlin, Germany, on Aug. 29, 2020. (Sean Gallup/Getty
Images) People protest against coronavirus-related restrictions and
government policy in Berlin, Germany, on Aug. 29, 2020. (Sean
Gallup/Getty Images)

Examples of “conspiracy theories” cited in last year’s report include
everything from widely held beliefs such as “climate change denial”
and concerns about “manipulation of federal elections” in the United
States, to more far-fetched and fringe notions such as the “earth is
flat” or “Michelle Obama is actually a lizard.”
U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming
last year spoke at a World Economic Forum event and boasted that the
global organization had “partnered” with Google to promote its
materials and suppress those that contradict it in search results.

“We own the science,” she said. “We think the world should know it.”

In an October 2020 World Economic Forum podcast on “Seeking a cure for
the infodemic,” Ms. Fleming bragged of having enlisted over 100,000
volunteers to amplify U.N. views while squelching competing narratives
that she dubs “misinformation.”

The revelation came after years of U.N. and governmental efforts to
suppress what the global organization describes as extremism,
misinformation, and more on the internet.
In 2016, the U.N. Security Council launched a "framework" to fight
"extremism" online on the heels of a program from the previous year
that pledged to battle "ideologies" that it said might lead to
violence. Communism was not one of the targeted ideologies.
UNESCO Defends the Plan
The UNESCO spokesman defended the new plan, framing it more as an
effort to protect free expression rather than a plan to limit it.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) headquarters in Paris on Oct. 12, 2017. The agency recently
revealed a plan to regulate sical media and online communications.
(JACQUES DEMARTHON/AFP via Getty Images) The United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
headquarters in Paris on Oct. 12, 2017. The agency recently revealed a
plan to regulate sical media and online communications. (JACQUES
DEMARTHON/AFP via Getty Images)

“Protecting freedom of expression has been at the heart of all of
UNESCO’s initiatives to promote best practices in communications for
decades, and this principle underpinned our approach to the Guidelines
from the start,” the spokesman said.

The statement also pointed to a section of the guidelines that calls
for adhering to “legal due process” when dealing with “hate speech.”

“They put a particular focus on the need for transparency as well as
systematic human rights due diligence and impact assessments, as well
as accountability to users,” the spokesman said, adding that the plan
calls for “equal distribution of moderation capacity.”

“It is also clearly stated that the Guidelines should be considered in
their entirety, rather than picking and choosing—for example, a policy
on content moderation implemented by regulators that do not meet the
definition of independence set out in the Guidelines would not be in
alignment, regardless of the specific nature of the policy,” said the
UNESCO spokesman, claiming that the guidelines will actually “expand”
freedom of expression.

The organization didn't provide a timeline for implementation, but
more meetings are scheduled in the lead-up to the September 2024 U.N.
summit in New York City.