U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that in a year where more than half the world will be holding elections, new technologies including social media and artificial intelligence have made disinformation a greater threat than ever.
Speaking to the third Summit for Democracy in Seoul Monday, Blinken added that while those technologies have dramatically accelerated the already fast-changing information environment, they have also “created an accelerant for disinformation, fueling polarization, adding to the general sense of confusion that people have about the world around them.”
Blinken said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, disinformation discouraged millions from getting vaccinated, “sometimes with fatal results.” Climate change, he said, was another example where disinformation has helped delay action on the crisis.
With the number of elections being held globally, Blinken called 2024 “an extraordinary election year in country after country – but warned that citizens and candidates will face “a flood of falsehoods that suffocate serious civic debate.”
He said adversaries of democracy are using disinformation to exploit differences inside democratic countries by sowing cynicism and instability.
“Pitting one group against another. Discrediting our institutions,” Blinken said.
The secretary of state pointed to a 2023 State Department report that says China has spent billions of dollars to spread propaganda and suppress Western news outlets.
He gave the example of China buying television platforms in Africa that excluded international news channels from subscription packages, and surreptitiously buying media companies in Southeast Asia – which then run heavily pro-China news.
He said Russia has used similar tactics, “laundering” Russian media content through Latin American channels to undermine global support for Ukraine.
“By discovering and publicizing these influence operations, we’ve enabled other governments, media, civil society to track and to thwart them,” Blinken said. For its part, he said, the U.S. is trying to use diplomacy to promote common principles and align allies to counter media manipulation by foreign adversaries.
In his speech, Blinken also stressed that governments need to uphold media freedom and the safety of journalists on- and offline – because an independent and empowered press is a cornerstone for healthy democracies.
The Summit for Democracy, launched by the U.S. in 2021, seeks to promote democratic values and to demonstrate how democracies better serve their people.
According to a statement on the U.S. State department’s website, more than 70 nations have endorsed the summit’s Declaration for Democracy.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
