Sun 29 January 2023:
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged the establishment of “guardrails” to prevent hate speech, extremism and misinformation.
“The online world is one of the main reasons that hate speech, extreme ideologies and misinformation are disseminating so fast around the world,” said the UN chief, calling on all those involved to do more to stop the spread, and set up enforceable “guardrails.”
At a UN ceremony to mark the Holocaust at the UN headquarters in New York, the top UN official warned that antisemitism, hate speech, and misinformation are ever-present, 90 years after the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany.
The UN chief noted that people are living in a world in which an economic crisis is breeding discontent, populist demagogues are using the crisis to win votes, and “misinformation, paranoid conspiracy theories, and unchecked hate speech” are rampant.
“Today, I am issuing an urgent appeal to everyone with influence across the information ecosystem,” Guterres said at a commemoration ceremony at the United Nations. “Stop the hate. Set up guardrails. And enforce them.”
He accused social media platforms and advertisers of profiting off the spread of hateful content.
“By using algorithms that amplify hate to keep users glued to their screens, social media platforms are complicit,” added Guterres. “And so are the advertisers subsidizing this business model.”
“Today, we can hear echoes of those same siren songs to hate. From an economic crisis that is breeding discontent to populist demagogues using the crisis to seduce voters to runaway misinformation, paranoid conspiracy theories and unchecked hate speech.”
He lamented the rise of anti-Semitism, which he said also reflects a rise of all kinds of hate.
“And what is true for anti-Semitism is true for other forms of hate. Racism. Anti-Muslim bigotry. Xenophobia. Homophobia. Misogyny”
He warned that social media platforms and their advertisers are complicit in moving extremism to the mainstream, turning many parts of the Internet into “toxic waste dumps for hate and vicious lies.”
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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