Tech industry allowing 'deluge' of misinformation: RSF

Tech industry allowing 'deluge' of misinformation: RSF

Global press freedom
Ranking on global press freedom in several categories from the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index 2022, published in May 2023. Photo: Valentin GUELET, Valentina BRESCHI / AFP
Source: AFP

PAY ATTENTION: Celebrate South African innovators, leaders and trailblazers with us! Click to check out Women of Wonder 2022 by Briefly News!

Journalism is being battered by propaganda and increasingly sophisticated fakes, aided by AI software and a failure of oversight from tech companies, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Wednesday.

Overall, the environment for journalists was rated as "bad" in 70 percent of the 180 countries in the NGO's annual ranking, and "good" in just eight countries.

Norway and North Korea remain best and worst, respectively, for press freedom, according to the 21st annual report, which was published on World Press Freedom Day.

This year, RSF put a spotlight on the myriad forms of misinformation that are "drowning out" trustworthy news -- a problem compounded by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence.

"It is the tech industry that allows disinformation to be produced, distributed and amplified," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire told AFP.

Read also

At 75, Israel's economy offers success or inequality

"Reliable information is drowned in a deluge of disinformation," Deloire added. "We are less and less able to perceive the differences between the real and the artificial, the true and the false."

PAY ATTENTION: Follow Briefly News on Twitter and never miss the hottest topics! Find us at @brieflyza!

He said a prime example was Elon Musk, who took over Twitter in late 2022. The report criticises his new paid-for verification system, saying Musk was pushing "an arbitrary, payment-based approach to information to the extreme".

The report used the example of Midjourney, an AI programme that generates high-quality images that are "feeding social media with increasingly plausible and undetectable fake 'photos'", such as those of Donald Trump being manhandled by police and a comatose Julian Assange in a straitjacket that recently went viral.

Systematic propaganda

Traditional forms of political interference are also gaining ground in many countries, RSF said.

Read also

Google clashes with Brazil over disinformation bill

Some two-thirds of countries have political actors who are "often or systematically involved in massive disinformation or propaganda campaigns", it said, highlighting the cases of Russia, India and China.

They are assisted by a vast disinformation industry.

RSF recently supported a consortium of investigative journalists working on "Forbidden Stories", a project which uncovered the activities of Israeli firm "Team Jorge" which specialises in producing disinformation.

The worst countries in the new ranking, apart from North Korea, were Vietnam, "which has almost completed its hunt of independent reporters and commentators," and China, "the world's biggest jailer of journalists".

India fell from "problematic" to "very bad", thanks to "media takeovers by oligarchs close to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi", and also in Turkey, where the government "has stepped up its persecution of journalists in the run-up to elections scheduled for 14 May".

The United States fell three places to 45th, in part due to a deteriorating security situation for journalists.

Read also

'Godfather of AI' quits Google to warn of the tech's dangers

The biggest falls were seen in Peru (down 33 places to 110), Senegal (down 31 to 104) and Haiti (down 29 to 99th).

Major improvement was seen in Brazil, up 18 to 92 thanks to the departure of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

The Middle East and North Africa remains the most dangerous region for journalists, RSF said, while Europe remains the safest, though attacks on journalists in Germany saw it drop five places.

The ranking is compiled by combining data on abuses committed against journalists with hundreds of surveys sent to journalists, academics and human rights activists.

PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ click on “Recommended for you” and enjoy!

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.