Press freedom “drowned” in disinformation

Political propaganda, economic manipulation, false content generated by artificial intelligence… Disinformation in the broad sense is a major threat to press freedom around the world, reports Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in its 21st annual ranking. Without change, the highest rated country is Norway and the lowest is North Korea. France is 24th and gains two places. Overall, the conditions for practicing journalism are poor in 7 out of 10 countries.

This 2023 edition particularly highlights the effects of misinformation. In two thirds of the 180 countries assessed, the specialists who contribute to the development of the ranking “report the involvement of political actors” in “massive disinformation or propaganda campaigns”, according to RSF. This is the case of Russia, India, China or Mali.

More broadly, this ranking “highlights the dazzling effects of the simulacrum industry in the digital ecosystem”. “It is the industry that makes it possible to produce disinformation, to distribute it or to amplify it”, explains to AFP Christophe Deloire, secretary general of the NGO.

“Deluge”

This is, according to him, the case of “leaders of digital platforms who don’t care about distributing propaganda or false information”, and whose “typical example” is “the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk”.

Another phenomenon is fake content created by artificial intelligence (AI). “Midjourney, an AI that generates images in very high definition, is feeding social networks with increasingly plausible fakes,” said RSF, citing fake photos of Donald Trump’s arrest “recovered virally”. We are also witnessing “large-scale manipulative productions” by specialized companies, on behalf of governments or companies.

In February, a vast investigation by the collective of investigative journalists Forbidden Stories had thus revealed the activities of an Israeli company called “Team Jorge” and specialized in disinformation. All these “unprecedented manipulative capacities are used to weaken those who embody quality journalism, at the same time as they weaken journalism itself”, warns RSF.

“Reliable information is drowned in a deluge of disinformation”, judge Deloire, according to whom “we perceive less and less the differences between the real and the artificial, the true and the false”. “One of the major challenges is to put democratic principles back into this gigantic market for attention and content,” he believes.

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