Global Media Policy Seminar Series: Antonina Cherevko on "The Weaponization of Information"

|About the Speaker|
Antonina Cherevko is a Policy & Law Reform Adviser with the INGO International Media Support (IMS, mediasupport.org). She has been with IMS since 2008 managing programmes and project initiatives in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Georgia. She is an experienced human rights lawyer with in-depth knowledge of the Eurasia politics and media sector. She is a member of the Independent Media Council in Ukraine and a member of the Committee of Experts on Combating Hate Speech (ADI/MSI-DIS) of the Council of Europe.
In this webinar, she talked about about the 'Weaponization of information and attacks on “information sovereignty” - would freedom of expression standards suffice to tame the “information wars”?'
| About the Global Media Seminar Series |
The PCMLP Global Media Seminar Series is an online seminar series jointly organised between the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford and the School of Communication at the University of Johannesburg. The series features insights on pressing issues affecting new media and human rights, particularly at the margins. For more information, visit: pcmlp.socleg.o...
| Talk Abstract |
A liberal stance, traditionally supported by the intergovernmental and non-governmental actors and confirmed by the international courts, suggests that insulting, offensive and shocking speech should also be protected, especially as in line with the theory of the ‘free marketplace of ideas’, we are accustomed to believe that truth and reason are destined to win over harmful and/or false speech. This is, however, not exactly what has been happening at least since the end of 2013, when both traditional media, online outlets and social media networks started to be actively used for the purposeful, well-organized and coordinated disinformation campaigns. For instance, the massive research of Twitter posts proves that disinformation largely outplays true messages, which makes it an easy and attractive method for pursuing various political purposes via dissemination of ‘weaponised’ narratives.
The term ‘weaponization of information’ was coined to define the use of information (and free speech rights) as a weapon in the framework of Russia’s aggressive foreign policy: first, as a response to the EuroMaidan protests in Ukraine in late 2013, then in the course of the illegal annexation of Crimea and subsequent conflict in the east of Ukraine, and finally as a means of meddling in Brexit, the US presidential elections of 2016 as well as various elections and political processes in Europe (French and German elections, Catalonia unrest etc.). While the term originated in the European region and is currently closely associated with Russia’s state backed media and foreign policy, it has been gaining global popularity during the past several years, and can be easily replicated by other authoritarian regimes with international ambitions (like, for example, Iran and its recent disinformation campaigns) because it allows for a great deal of asymmetrical influence and is heavily enhanced by the mere nature of modern instant communications.
There has been little attempt to explore the phenomenon of weaponization of information in the context of human rights and the concepts of freedom of expression, legitimate limitations of it, and abuse of rights. Whether the existent international legal framework is able to protect the very essence of freedom of expression from abuse by ill-intentioned actors in times when ‘theories of speech and society are under intense examination’ is not merely a theoretical question, it may well become the question of further preservation and survival of the value-based system that we currently rely upon.

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