Tag: un

World Leaders Sign New Censorship Declaration at UN Event While Secretary-General António Guterres Pushed for Increased Online Censorship

A new UN-driven censorship declaration has been signed by a number of world leaders during an event in Portugal – the Cascais Declaration at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Global Forum.

We obtained a copy of the final declaration for you here.

The gathering was addressed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who once again reiterated his commitment to censoring online speech, bringing up the usual set of “arguments” in favor of moving in this direction.

During the address, Guterres spoke about “unchecked digital platforms and AI” and accused them of allowing “hate speech to proliferate like never before” – and did not miss the opportunity to mention “misinformation and deepfakes” in the same context.

Guterres wants Big Tech, advertisers, and media – that is, along with some governments and organizations like the UN, among the most egregious offenders when it comes to online censorship – to double down.

“Taking responsibility for their role” in spreading hate speech, deepfakes, etc., was how he phrased it.

Guterres also again pushed a UN initiative that critics say introduces algorithmic censorship and demonetization under the stated “anti-misinformation and hate speech” scope – the UN’s Global Principles for Information Integrity.

According to Guterres, these recommendations allow for “a more humane information ecosystem.”

Keep reading

U.N. Chief Demands Governments ‘Rein in Hate Speech and Disinformation Online’

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres encouraged world governments on Tuesday to “rein in hate speech and disinformation spreading online” through a global censorship framework.

Guterres suggested that “unchecked digital platforms” were amplifying the “worst impulses of humanity” and threatening global stability and peace, requiring world governments to buy into U.N. programs such as the “Global Digital Compact” to silence speech the world body considers threatening. He made his remarks on the same day that the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared global intervention to “educate” online social influencers in how to avoid “misinformation” was an “urgent” priority. UNESCO launched an expansive campaign in early 2023 to promote global censorship regulations to silence “hate speech,” equating online discussions that run afoul of U.N. speech norms to “insects thriving in the dark.”

More recently, U.N. leaders used their platforms at the G20 summit this month to pressure the world’s most powerful economies to silence “disinformation” through a program promoting “information integrity on climate change.” The U.N. paired on that initiative with radical leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose government is leading a sprawling, violent effort to use the court system and police raids to intimidate conservative voices into silence online.

Guterres made his comments on Tuesday at the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations global forum, hosted this year in his native Portugal. The Alliance describes itself as “a unique and inclusive platform for Member States, the private sector, youth, civil society and the media to exchange views and commit to dialogue and new partnerships.” The U.N. chief listed silencing “disinformation” as his second priority for the event.

Keep reading

The UN Is Using Africa as a Testing Ground for Controversial Digital ID Systems

The United Nations (but not only) has clearly chosen to focus its push on introducing digital ID systems to some of the world’s developing countries, particularly in Africa.

What’s referred to in reports as “a comprehensive initiative” is now taking place across the continent, driven by the UN development agency UNDP, as well as the UN Innovation Network, and even UNESCO (Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). This is one of the components of what’s known as the UN’s Global Digital Compact.

Such initiatives are sold in those countries as a way to develop better access to services and improve “digital inclusion.”

Keep reading

UN’s Latest Climate Agenda Sparks Alarms Over Online Censorship

The United Nations (UN) is engaging in yet another effort that can easily slip into a tool for “bolstering” online censorship.

Earlier in the week the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change was launched during a G20 Summit.

This adds to a convoluted list of various UN-driven treaties, initiatives, and goals – and here the Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has found a partner in Brazil’s authorities.

Those behind the document say it’s there to help combat climate change disinformation and take aim at social media in particular. If UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay is to be believed, this type of “disinformation” is “running rampant” on the internet.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who addressed the summit, also contributed to building the dramatic and alarmist narrative around both issues – climate, and “disinformation” – when he, in a social media post, complained about “coordinated disinformation campaigns impeding global progress on climate change.”

So far, the countries that have joined include Chile, Denmark, France, Morocco, Sweden, and the UK. They will collectively contribute to the UN raising $10–$15 million to fund “research and awareness campaigns” but also advocacy groups, and what’s referred to as communication strategies to help achieve the initiative’s goals.

While clearly treating the climate change theories as scientific fact, Azoulay stopped just short of referring to that as an existential threat – but did call it an “existential challenge.”

The UN official wants to see more than governments, scientists, etc., on board: the role of journalists is also highlighted here – in a rather strange way. Instead of reporting the news, journalists are envisaged as a kind of advocates themselves, “a critical link between science and society,” said Azoulay.

Keep reading

End of Empathy: Did the Gaza Genocide Render the UN Irrelevant?

Francesca Albanese did not mince her words. In a strongly worded speech at the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee on October 29, the UN Special Rapporteur deviated from the typical line of other UN officials. She directed her statements to those in attendance.

“Is it possible that after 42,000 people killed, you cannot empathize with the Palestinians?” Albanese said in her statement about the need to “recognize (Israel’s war on Gaza) as a genocide”. “Those of you who have not uttered a word about what is happening in Gaza demonstrate that empathy has evaporated from this room,” she added.

Was Albanese too idealistic when she chose to appeal to empathy, which, in her words, represents “the glue that makes us stand united as humanity”?

The answer largely depends on how we wish to define the role being played by the UN and its various institutions; whether its global platform was established as a guarantor of peace, or as a political club for those with military might and political power to impose their agendas on the rest of the world?

Albanese is not the first person to express deep frustration with the institutional, let alone the moral collapse of the UN, or the inability of the institution to affect any kind of tangible change, especially during times of great crises.

The UN’s own Secretary-General Antonio Guterres himself had accused the executive branch of the UN, the Security Council, of being “outdated”, “unfair” and an “ineffective system”.

“The truth is that the Security Council has systematically failed in relation to the capacity to put an end to the most dramatic conflicts that we face today,” he said, referring to “Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine”. Also, although noting that “The UN is not the Security Council”, Guterres acknowledged that all UN bodies “suffer from the fact that the people look at them and think, ‘Well, but the Security Council has failed us.’”

Keep reading

Russia’s Veto Of The UNSC Resolution On Sudan Saved It From A Neocolonialist Plot

The text was ambiguous about the authorities’ legitimacy even though they represent their country at the UN, didn’t call for the RSF to cease its attacks against the SAF, could have led to more arms smuggling to the group under the cover of aid, eroded Sudan’s sovereignty via the ICC, and could have led to a disastrous military intervention.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy railed against Russia at the UNSC on Monday following the latter’s veto of a draft ceasefire resolution in Sudan, which Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy responded to right afterwards. His words can be read in full here and will be summarized in the present piece, but before doing so, here are five background briefings for readers to review if they forgot about the origins of this conflict or weren’t aware of them to begin with:

* 16 April 2023: “Sudan’s ‘Deep State’ War Could Have Far-Reaching Geostrategic Consequences If It Continues”

* 21 April 2023: “Here’s Why The US Is Trying To Pin The Blame For Sudan’s ‘Deep State’ War On Russia”

* 27 April 2023: “Russia Is Right: ‘Political Engineering’ From Abroad Is Responsible For The Sudanese Crisis”

* 4 May 2023: “The Mainstream Media’s Admissions That American Meddling Ruined Sudan Are Misleading”

* 15 July 2023: “Sudan’s Neighbors Signaled That They’re Disinterested In Fighting A Divide-And-Rule Proxy War”

To oversimplify, the rivalry between Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”) exploded in spring 2023, exacerbated as it was by foreign pressure to complete the political transition. Burhan didn’t believe the rumors that the RSF was backed by Wagner, which were spread to pressure him into scrapping Sudan’s plans to host a Russian naval facility in exchange for Western support.

The military dimension of the conflict has since stalemated even though the humanitarian consequences continue to worsen. An estimated 24.8 million people out of the country’s nearly 50 million total population are now in need of humanitarian assistance, there are over 8 million internally displaced people, and 3 million fled abroad as refugees. These startling facts are the reason why the UNSC tabled the latest draft resolution for a ceasefire, but as could have been expected, the West sought to exploit it.

Keep reading

UN Committee Says Israel Is Carrying Out a Genocide, HRW Says Israel Is Committing War Crimes

On Thursday, a report published by a special UN committee said Israel’s actions in Gaza are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” while Human Rights Watch released a report saying Israel was committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing.

The UN report, released by the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices, said Israel has used “criminal means” to achieve its military goals, including the use of starvation as a weapon.

“This included intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury, using starvation as a method of warfare, and intentionally directing attacks against civilians,” the report reads.

The committee, which was formed in 1968, also discussed the occupied West Bank, where it said Israel has an “apartheid system of injustice.” The report said the “killing of and serious bodily or mental harm caused to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are violations under international law.”

The HRW report focused on Israel’s forcible displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. “Israeli authorities have caused massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since October 2023 and are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” HRW said. “There is no plausible imperative military reason to justify Israel’s mass displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population, often multiple times.”

Keep reading

The UN, Green Fund, and NATO – Unqualified Audits = Fraud

According to the World Meteorology Organization, the world began in 1885 when temperatures first were recorded.   And based on those recordings, which have been radically altered since that time, this is representative of a disaster caused by mankind.  The global mean temperature rose by 1.5’ Celsius.  The goal is for global temperatures to only rise by 1.5’ Celsius… 

In addition, UN climate experts have claimed that global greenhouse gas emissions have ‘smashed all records’.  Records began in 1958.  Starting in the 1950s, scientists began drilling deep into the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland to extract tubes of ice called ice cores.  The data is compared to the last ice age wherein there were few to zero – trees, plant life, etc… This is their methodology which has all the scientific analysis of comparing cow farts to climate.   Elevated levels of CO2 from climate change may enable plants to benefit from the carbon fertilization effect and use less water to grow.

With a President Trump we are hopefully back to reality in regards to Climate Change, NATO and the UN.  Fire up the coal and eliminate the wildlife weapon – windmills.  Melt down the steel components and make appliances.

The left is weeping, threatening that a US agreement to give Russia a win would mean Comrade Rutte will expel the US out of NATO!  NATO spends $1.3 trillion on defense of which the US picks up $860 billion or 66%.  Their last audit was in 2021 and included 33 recommendations, including:  “Five NATO Reporting Entities (ACO, IS, NAHEMO, NAPMA and NCPS) were required to resubmit their financial statements to correct material errors in order to obtain unqualified audit opinion on financial statements.  Sum had to restate their financials multiple times.”

The bottom line audit of NATO declared the Financial Statements and Compliance were ‘unqualified’.  This is considered an Adverse Opinion. Out of 44 reporting entities, 2 were given a ‘qualified’ audit score which is consistent with the last 3 years. Total Assets amounted to roughly $3.2 billion.  Liabilities were predominantly “Deferred Revenue’ of $2.4 billion. Deferred revenue, also known as unearned revenue or deferred income, is money a company receives in advance for products or services that have not yet been delivered.  The accounting entry would debit Cash & Receivables and credit the liability – yet the financial statements reveal only $1.686 billion.  This is what auditors refer to as unqualified, ie fraud.

For the past three years, their spending was exactly equal to revenue.   In the accounting world that is RED FLAG!   Not possible.   Their ‘Other Expenses’ is thus likely a plug to falsely create this bizarre budget.

There have been no financial statements for 2022, 2023 or quarterlies for 2024.   Houston!  This is worse than the US government.  We need to get out of DODGE!  NATO is Ukraine in drag.

Keep reading

UK government begins to implement digital IDs and tackle “misinformation” just like the UN wants it to

The following are summaries of articles published by Reclaim the Net over the last ten days, from 23 October to 13 November.  You can read the full article by following the hyperlink in the section title.

Table of Contents

  1. Ex-Facebook VP Joins UK Media Regulator Ofcom Sparking Fresh Conflict of Interest Concerns, 6 November 2024
  2. Tracking Health or Tracking You? The UK’s Expanding Health Surveillance, 23 October 2024
  3. UK Government Makes Major Digital ID Push, 3 November 2024
  4. UK Government To Test Digital ID on Veterans by 2025, Amid Plans for Wider Use, 13 November 2024
  5. UK Government Demands Regulator Create Social Media Overhaul to Curb “Misinformation,” Plans New Censorship Committee by 2025, 24 October 2024
  6. UN Wants Digital IDs To Combat “Hate Speech,” “Misinformation”, 7 November 2024

Keep reading

UN Wants Digital IDs To Combat “Hate Speech,” “Misinformation”

A United Nations (UN) committee has adopted two resolutions, one of them aimed at the World Organization’s Department of Global Communications establishing and strengthening “partnerships with new and traditional media to address hate speech narratives.”

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) also adopted a resolution further promoting the UN’s “Our Common Agenda” plan, which, among other points, proposes bank account-linked digital ID – as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Pact for the Future, and Global Digital Compact – also pushing for digital IDs, censorship, and surveillance, with major countries as the schemes’ key backers.

Ahead of the adoption of the documents, representatives of a number of countries spoke in favor of expanded censorship under the UN umbrella, with Italy’s delegate advocating for the use of AI in combating “misinformation and disinformation.”

UK’s representative reiterated the country’s commitment to the UN Pact for the Future and Global Digital Compact, highlighted the far-reaching censorship law, Online Safety Act, and noted that it forces companies “to remove illegal online content, including illegal mis and disinformation generated by AI.”

Another thing the UK remains committed to, the address revealed, is digging its heels in when it comes to characterizing “misinformation” as a major threat.

Keep reading