Okil: Most of the historical genocides started with inflammatory rhetoric based on false information
Mukhtar: Social media companies must take serious steps towards combating hate crimes
The Global Media and Information Literacy Week (MIL), commemorated annually in the last week of October, represents a major occasion for Maat to highlight the phenomenon of the spread of false information on the internet as a challenge to media and information literacy, through issuing a study entitled “Digital Disinformation… States Employment of Internet Mercenaries Undermines Human Rights.” The study indicated that the growing use of the internet, especially the rapid access to social media, has alarmingly doubled citizens’ exposure to misinformation and hate speech, as some governments manipulate the information on the Internet, specifically those spread on social media, in order to achieve certain gains and serve its purposes regardless of human rights considerations, and here emerges the role of internet mercenaries as a primary tool used by governments to achieve their goals, undermining the political and economic rights of citizens and allowing minorities and vulnerable groups to be targeted at different levels of influence.
In the meantime, Ayman Okil, president of Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, said that the spread of digital disinformation and misinformation would increase human rights violations and undermine freedoms of speech and opinions. Furthermore, Okeil stressed that hate speech based on false information has jeopardized ethnic and religious communities that are targeted with hate crimes, affirming that most of the historical genocides and racial killings have begun with inflammatory rhetoric based on false information. Okeil concluded by saying that there is an opportunity to combat the disinformation spread on the internet by promoting media and information literacy.
In this regard, Muhammed Mukhtar, a researcher at Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, called on tech companies to assume responsibility and take serious and effective steps towards combating hate speech and enhancing media and information literacy, in addition to the need to improve technical methods to determine the content of electronic disinformation campaigns.
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