\n<\/p>\n
Designing ways to fight back against falsehoods that can trigger tensions, violence, or even death, the UN has been monitoring how mis- and disinformation and hate speech can attack health, security, stability as well as progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has become clear that business as usual is not an option,\u201d UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres said in a\u00a0policy brief launched in June on\u00a0information integrity on digital platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d he wrote in the brief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Disinformation can be dangerous in other ways. Several UN missions have reported social media campaigns in recent years targeting their peacekeeping work.<\/p>\n
In 2019, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known by its French acronym MONUSCO, raised\u00a0grave concerns about social media disinformation campaigns calling for violence against peacekeepers during an Ebola epidemic and following a deadly attack by an armed group in the restive eastern region.<\/p>\n
By 2022, the Security Council had adjusted the mandates of its four largest peacekeeping operations \u2013 DRC,\u00a0Central African Republic (CAR),\u00a0Mali, and\u00a0South Sudan \u2013 and added the task of preventing disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining a mission\u2019s credibility<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a war that is going on through social media, the radio, and traditional news outlets,\u201d\u00a0said Bintou Keita, who heads MONUSCO. Fighting deadly disinformation has been a \u201cpainful curve\u201d to learn of this new battlefield, but the mission has now become proactive on social and other media platforms, to help stop its spread, she added.<\/p>\n
Weapons and ammunition is collected during a demobilization process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
To fight back against disinformation, UN peacekeepers are putting new tools into the hands of civilians of all ages, including 15-year-old Blessing Kasasi in DRC.<\/p>\n
An activist advocating for the rights of women and children, Ms. Kasasi readily joined a workshop in the capital city of Kinshasa, with 30 young people who learned about detecting \u201cfake news\u201d and countering it with the most effective weapon: the truth.<\/p>\n
Guillaume Kingh-Farel, one of the workshop trainers, said disinformation is \u201cused as a weapon of war to undermine MONUSCO\u2019s peace efforts in the DRC\u201d.<\/p>\n
As such, the MONUSCO-supported\u00a0workshop to train \u201ca digital army capable of detecting false information\u201d by producing content with the help of a smartphone and editing software and simultaneously spreading objective, credible information through \u201crelay clubs\u201d that disseminate these messages through their networks.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a smartphone, I will produce videos to echo good information,\u201d Ms. Kasasi said after the workshop.<\/p>\n