The U.N. Security Council said Tuesday that more needs to be done to counter disinformation and misinformation about the U.N.\u2019s 12 peacekeeping operations, which have faced growing attacks especially on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Brazilian-drafted presidential statement approved by all 15 council members said the U.N. must \u201cimprove the culture of strategic communications across civilian, military and police components\u201d of peacekeeping missions in order to protect civilians \u2014 a key mandate for the U.N.\u2019s 90,000 peacekeepers in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The council noted \u201cwith great concern the increasing amount of disinformation and misinformation directed against United Nations peacekeeping operations, which may negatively impact missions and peacekeepers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Fran\u00e7a, whose country holds the council presidency this month and chaired Tuesday\u2019s meeting, said that \u201cstrategic communications are essential for a successful peacekeeping operation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council that the world in which peacekeepers operate \u201cis more hazardous today than any time in recent memory,\u201d with geopolitical tensions reverberating locally and conflicts \u201cmore complex and multi-layered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeacekeepers are facing terrorists, criminals, armed groups and their allies \u2014 many with access to powerful modern weapons, and many with a vested interest in perpetuating the chaos in which they thrive,\u201d the U.N. chief said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, he added, \u201cThe weapons they wield are not just guns and explosives. Misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech are increasingly being used as a weapon of war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guterres said a recent survey found that nearly half of all U.N. peacekeepers feel misinformation and disinformation severely affect their work and threaten their safety and security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an example of false information spreading \u201clike wildfire,\u201d Guterres said a fake letter alleging that U.N. peacekeepers in Mali were collaborating with armed groups \u201cwent viral on WhatsApp and was picked up by national media.\u201d It stirred up hostility and resentment against peacekeepers and made their efforts to protect civilians even harder, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lt. Gen. Marcos Da Costa, commander of the peacekeeping force in Congo, told the council that it operates in a country where successive surveys find \u201can overall poor perception\u201d among the population about the mission\u2019s relevance in improving their security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnti-mission sentiment prevails in certain parts of the country that even prevent some of our deployments,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfair speeches by several actors against the mission put in risk the safety of our peacekeepers. The extensive use of social media by armed groups and other spoilers undermines the confidence in the U.N.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said these armed militias \u201cuse regular information warfare techniques\u201d and their fake news diffusing through messaging and social media is difficult to distinguish from reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese emerging technologies are driving a fundamental change to the character of the war, and peace operations are already being affected,\u201d Da Costa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guterres said the U.N. is moving to improve communications in peacekeeping operations between uniformed and civilian personnel, seek military and police officers skilled in communicating, and work with tech and media companies and member states to collect and share best practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council that the world in which peacekeepers operate “is more hazardous today than any time in recent memory,” with geopolitical tensions reverberating locally and conflicts “more complex and multi-layered.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":69344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"8":{"categories":["it-networks","home"],"primary_category":""}}},"categories":[10,29,16,104,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1070],"class_list":["post-22622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber","category-home","category-it-networks","category-network-security","category-smr"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QYAXWHXD55FPRFSOTRWJBZ3FQQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/2022\/07\/13\/un-stresses-strategic-communications-to-combat-disinformation-weapon-of-war\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n