United Nations, Harvard, And Facebook-Google Launch Push For Censorship Worldwide

Michael Shellenberger

The United Nations is training people worldwide to demand censorship by social media platforms of their fellow citizens for “potentially harmful content.” At least one U.S.-government funded group, The Atlantic Council, is involved.

Our discovery of this shocking news comes on the same day that Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center announced its hiring of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden to oversee its advocacy of censorship at a global level. 

Arden and her allies have used the 2019 Christchurch mosque killing of 51 people to demand greater censorship by social media platforms of disfavored speech. 

“Ardern is known globally as a dedicated and effective leader in pursuing greater online platform accountability and content moderation standards through the Christchurch Call,” wrote Harvard, “a community of over 120 governments, online service providers, and civil society organizations…” (emphasis added).

Back at the U.N., its program is called “Social Media 4 Peace.” It is a pilot program for pro-censorship activists based in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Colombia, Indonesia, and Kenya. It is sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

It held its first online meetings for censorship workers in Kenya and Colombia this week and last.

The U.N. effort emphasizes research and “monitoring.” But, as in the U.S., the explicit goal is to pressure social media platforms to censor disfavored voices.

And the U.N. censors are going further than U.S. censors did. Some even demand censorship of “negative comments about public figures’ appearances.” Others require the power to censor “slang” that social media platforms might miss.