The United Nation's iVerify Initiative
Using Artificial Intelligence to Combat "Misinformation" and Support Election Integrity
UN Verified
The United Nations (UN) has had its hand in manipulating social media and influencers. In May 2020, while I was on the frontlines of NYC’s Covid outbreak, the UN launched one of its first attempts at controlling the Covid narrative on social media by launching VERIFIED. United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres stated “We cannot cede our virtual spaces to those who traffic in lies, fear, and hate … Misinformation spreads online, in messaging apps and person to person. Its creators use savvy production and distribution methods. To counter it, scientists and institutions like the United Nations need to reach people with accurate information they can trust.” Team Halo was one of those verified initiatives that used scientists, as well as nurses and doctors on TikTok, to combat Covid vaccine “misinformation” and promote the Covid vaccine as “safe and effective.” You can read more about Team Halo in my previous substack article by clicking this link.
The UN took the opportunity during the Covid lockdowns to leverage technology in enabling contained access to vital information about health, but also education, and work. But because of the lockdowns, so many were taking to social media for their news on the pandemic. In 2019, Pew Research Center found that over half of Americans (54%) got their news from social media, and in 2020, 71% of Americans get their news from social media. With Legacy Media already in lockstep, it was essential for social media platforms to be reigned in as well to follow the official Covid narrative. The UN was concerned about the “accelerated rates at which misinformation, disinformation, and even hate speech was spreading.” The UN’s General Assembly and Human Rights Council has gone as far as determining “restrictions to freedom of expression are only permissible in exceptional cases. When restrictions are imposed, they must be provided by law, by necessary for the protection of the rights of individuals, or of national security, and be proportionate.”
Restricting Freedom of Speech In The Name of Human Rights
Restriction of freedom of speech is allowed by the Human Rights Council, as long as it is for the people’s protection. They released their report in August 2022 on censoring free speech for human rights in a document titled Countering Disinformation for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: Report of the Secretary-General. The highlights for what tech enterprises such as social media platforms should do is as follows:
AVOID causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their activities and ADDRESS adverse impacts
DISCLOSE policies and practices relevant to countering disinformation
REVIEW their business models to make sure they are in line with human rights principles
ENSURE greater transparency and provide access to relevant data and information
ENSURE that their content moderation practices are consistent and sufficiently resourced in all locations where they operate and in all relevant languages.
United Nations Development Programme and the New Digital Strategy
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been a subsidiary organ of the UN since 1965, long before the invention of the internet, but it is the guiding tool for controlling the flow of digital information in over a hundred countries. In many developing countries, news is still predominantly disseminated through radio and print media such as newspapers, as well as word of mouth. By helping to set up the digital framework, the ‘UNDP now operates in 170 countries, including fragile and conflicted areas. UNDP also has strong ties to local digital and innovation ecosystems through the Accelerator Lab Network, which has been set up in 91 locations covering 115 countries. This enables UNDP to develop solutions that are rooted in local ecosystems which can be called and adapted to fit multiple contexts.” Another major feature of the UNDP is the creation of an “inclusive" digital environment and advancing the 2030 agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
iVerify, Misinformation, Election Integrity, and Sustainable Development Goals
“Understanding online information pollution is an urgent global challenge. Misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech threaten peace and security, disproportionately affecting those who are already vulnerable. iVerify is UNDP’s automated fact-checking tool that can be used to identify false information and prevent and mitigate its spread. It is supported through the UNDP Chief Digital Office and the UNDP Brussels-based Task Force on Electoral Assistance.”
iVerify takes a multi-stakeholder approach working with media, government, and the private sector to counter dis/misinformation and hate speech and contribute to information, resources, and knowledge sharing. They assure there will be a “guarantee triple verification” where a story or piece of content will be checked by three separate reviewers to mitigate individual bias, ensure no information is missing and guarantee quality control.
iVerify is part of the Digital Public Goods Alliance which uses “open-source software, open data, open AI models, open standards, and open content to comb social media for misinformation, election integrity, and promote Sustainable Development Goals. Their members include the following:
They have already piloted iVerify in Zambia ahead of their historic August 2021 general elections as well as in Honduras for their November 2021 elections. iVerify uses companies like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) to provide them with proprietary application programming interfaces (APIs) to access their technologies. To do this Meta created CrowdTangle as its API to interface with iVerify. CrowdTangle was instrumental in
promoting the Covid-19 Vaccine by tracking circulating information about the Covid vaccine that Meta deemed “misinformation.” In fact, just between March and October 2020, they applied 167,000,000 warnings displayed on Facebook and Instagram content. They even boast of removing 12,000,000 pieces of content during that eight-month time frame. They also “amplified” the voice of their health partners by giving them preferential algorithm treatment. Meta encouraged the use of “branded content and influencer partnership” to promote Covid vaccines.
Meta did not require authorization or disclaimers on content that:
Promotes or encourages people to get vaccinated
Promotes vaccination services, participation in vaccine trials and studies, or encourages outreach to healthcare professionals to learn more about specific medications and vaccines
Discusses vaccine trials, approval processes, vaccine development, or temporary side effects of a vaccine
Claims that a COVID-19 vaccine can prevent the contraction of the virus
Discusses disparities in access to vaccines and government funding of vaccines
Meta also reinforces iVerify’s UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goals by censoring Covid content and boasts that it connected more than 2,000,000,000 people to “reliable, accurate covid-19 and vaccine information.”
Threads Vs Twitter and the 2024 Presidential Election
With Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and dismantling of its internal fact-checking and censorship of covid related information, Twitter became the “wild west” of covid free speech and vaccine injury information. This is why Meta’s new Twitter-like platform named Threads is so important. Meta tethered a user’s Threads to their Instagram account, so if you delete threads you end up deleting your Instagram as well. If you signed up you must stay. It’s a digital Berlin Wall so to speak. Meta has a combined user count of 3.74 billion users including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp (Facebook makes up 2.96 billion of those accounts). TikTok has 1 billion active global users and Twitter has 1.3 billion accounts but only 250 million monthly active users and 237.8 million monetizable monthly users. The United States is the country with the most number of Twitter users 80 million users, 56.4% male and 43.6% female, with a majority of Twitter’s audience (38.5%) are 25 to 34 years of age. This is a ripe environment for Meta to capitalize on a tethered audience, just in time for the United States 2024 Presidential Election. In the 2020 presidential election, 68.4% were female, 65% were male, while the age group 18-24-year-olds represent 51.5%. All with the United Nations iVerify ready to uphold election integrity and combat misinformation.