(Photo: Agência Brasil / EBC)
The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven, a group of the world’s seven largest economies, formalized on Wednesday (5) a commitment to create a rapid response mechanism to contain propaganda and disinformation.
The decision was announced by the British Chancellor, Dominic Raab, after a meeting in London in person for the first time in two years.
The agreement provides for the implementation of a coordinated mechanism between Western democracies and “open societies” against “malicious external activities” to mislead and “destabilize democratic institutions” and their electoral processes that take place via the Internet or not.
The document does not mention Russia or China – the countries mentioned in many of the verbal statements mainly while referring to specific recent cases of spreading “vaccine misinformation”.
But, yesterday, Raab did say that the UK is “making the G7 agree on a swift rebutting mechanism” to contain Russian, Chinese or global disinformation.
According to British, American and European officials, Russia and China are trying to share suspicions across the West, whether by spreading false information about the elections or by spreading lies about Covid-19 vaccines.
During the Wednesday meeting, the ministers strongly criticized Russia for its “irresponsible stance” in Ukraine and called on China to “respect human rights.”
In addition, advisers to the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan have appealed to Iran to release six citizens who were arrested in an “arbitrary” manner.
