Today, the State Department is releasing what we’re calling a “Democratic Roadmap,” recommendations to help people become more aware of and resistant to information manipulation – like encouraging social media platforms to label AI-generated content, so that users know when an image is real or when it’s not.
Of course, we know that disinformation transcends borders. It crosses platforms. No single country, no single entity can meet this challenge alone. Which is why a third way that we’re creating a healthier information environment is through our diplomacy, advancing a shared understanding of the problem as well as creative solutions to address it.
We’re working to promote common principles. We’re aligning partners and allies around a framework to counter information manipulation by foreign adversaries.
Countries that adopt this blueprint commit to a range of actions, from developing national strategies and policies for fighting disinformation to enhancing their technical capabilities to detect and combat deceptive content.
To put that cooperation into practice, we’ve signed agreements with countries from Bulgaria to South Korea, training partners to analyze disinformation, building capacity and resilience to this challenge.
As I mentioned earlier today, this week, the United Nations will adopt a landmark U.S.-led resolution on advancing safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence for sustainable development – including measures to counter AI-enabled disinformation. Tomorrow, this summit’s Information Integrity Cohort will consider how to strengthen our responses to misleading content in the context of generative AI.
We’re also sharing best practices. One of the things I’ve learned in 30 years of doing this is that, for pretty much any problem that we face, somewhere, someone has probably figured out an answer, or at least the beginnings of an answer. But if we’re not sharing that information, then all of us have to continue to reinvent the wheel. Sharing best practices is an incredibly powerful way to actually make progress.
Alongside France, we’re co-chairing the OECD’s new Misinformation and Disinformation Hub, helping governments shift from ad hoc tactics to more holistic policies that enable reliable information to thrive.
We’re mobilizing collective action through groups like the Media Freedom Coalition, rallying more than 50 countries on six continents to speak out and engage governments when journalists are under assault.
One set of stakeholders in particular has an outsized role to play in building a healthier information ecosystem. Simply put, the United States believes that the private sector can and must do more to address disinformation.
Last year, we joined over 30 countries to endorse the Global Declaration on Information Integrity Online. In that declaration, we invited the tech industry to take steps like improving the transparency of their algorithms, establishing political advertising policies, developing indicators for gauging the trustworthiness of information sources.
Now, online platforms can’t solve the disinformation challenge alone; but the rest of us cannot solve it without them.
Finally, the United States is working to tell our own story in authentic, proactive, and strategic ways – recognizing that correcting skewed narratives about our country, about our democracy, about our partners requires our government to build trust and credibility around the world.
We engage influential voices and modern-day platforms where people get their news – like podcasts. We hold regular press conferences where we subject ourselves to the toughest questions. We also hold people-to-people exchanges that enable people around the world to learn who we are and what we value.
And when the State Department provides free wire services to media from the Indo-Pacific or Sub-Saharan Africa, these aren’t U.S. Government news services – they are independent, reputable outlets like the Associated Press, like Reuters that write tough articles, including about our own government.
Our willingness to acknowledge and to address our own shortcomings – not sweep them under the rug, not pretend they don’t exist – that’s what makes democracies different, and that’s ultimately what makes democracies stronger.
Another hallmark of our democracies is that our citizens shape our trajectories. And the choice ahead for us is clear.
We can become so overwhelmed by lies and distortions – so divided from one another – that we will fail to meet the challenges that our nations face.
Or we can meet this moment and do what democracies do best. We can welcome diverse voices and perspectives. We can think critically and debate vigorously. We can actually grow and self-correct.
We can remember that accurate information, fundamentally, is a public good. It’s available to all of us. It benefits all of us. And it will take all of us – everyone at this summit, each of our citizens – to build a more open and more resilient environment for information, and continue to deliver a better future for our people and people around the world.
Thank you so much for your attention this afternoon, but especially thank you for the work you’ll be doing in the days and weeks ahead. Thanks very much. Thank you. (Applause.)
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