'Baseless' claim of UN plan to imprison those who spread misinformation | Fact check
The claim: UN announced plans to imprison X users who share misinformation
A Dec. 16 article published by The People’s Voice claims to share news of a new punitive action announced by the United Nations against some social media users.
“UN Vows To Imprison X Users Who Share ‘Misinformation’ Online,” reads the article's headline.
Similar versions of the claim circulated widely on Facebook and received thousands of reposts on X.
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Our rating: False
The director of the U.N. program referenced in the article said the claim is false. It misrepresents a document that makes no mention of arrests or imprisonment and instead consists solely of pledges made by world leaders. The article was posted by a website that routinely publishes misinformation.
‘A total misrepresentation’ of leaders’ pledges
The article repeatedly references – but distorts – the Cascais Declaration, a collection of more than two dozen pledges agreed to by world leaders during a November forum in Cascais, Portugal, conducted by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. That group is a political initiative of the U.N. that promotes understanding between the Islamic and Western cultures and was formed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
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In an email to Paste BN, the alliance's director, Nihal Saad, described The People’s Voice article as “baseless” and “a total misrepresentation of” the document of pledges. The pledges mostly have to do with encouraging dialogue and cooperation among different religious groups.
“The declaration does not in any way, form or shape call for arresting or imprisoning citizens who share misinformation online,” Saad said.
The seven-page document includes two references to misinformation. But it contains no arrest orders, does not designate any activities as crimes and makes no mention of imprisonment or any other type of law enforcement action – contrary to claims in the article that the declaration “makes it a criminal offence (sic) to spread non-mainstream content online."
The declaration states that world leaders who agree to its pledges are “alarmed by the global spread and proliferation of disinformation, misinformation and hate speech, both online and offline.” One of its 25 pledges is to “stress the importance of combating disinformation, misinformation and hate speech, while stressing information integrity.”
While the article points out the declaration fails to define those terms, it then undercuts its primary claim by stating the document "does not lay out any methods to fight them.”
The People's Voice, previously known as NewsPunch, has repeatedly published fabricated stories. Paste BN has debunked false claims that New Hampshire banned “chemtrails," that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said only Bill Gates “can save humanity" and that the World Health Organization demanded surveillance powers to monitor every person on earth.
Paste BN reached out to The People’s Voice and to the Facebook user who shared the claim but did not immediately receive any responses.
Our fact-check sources
- Nihal Saad, Dec. 19, Email exchange with Paste BN
- United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, Nov. 27, Cascais Declaration on the Tenth Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations
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