Yoon calls on democracies to jointly tackle disinformation

President Yoon Suk Yeol called on democratic nations Wednesday to jointly tackle disinformation to guarantee fair elections and safeguard the foundation for democracy.

Yoon issued the call during the virtual leaders’ plenary of the Third Summit for Democracy hosted by South Korea this week, noting this year is a “super election year” in which one-third of the world’s population will go to the polls.

South Korea, for one, is set to hold general elections on April 10.

“Democratic nations that share universal values must band together and jointly respond to disinformation,” Yoon said while chairing a session titled “Technology, Elections, and Mis-/Dis-information,” arguing that disinformation incites people to make wrong decisions, threatening elections that are the basis for democracy.

“This is a clear provocation against democracy,” he said from the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul. “Our duty to safeguard the foundation for democracy through fair elections is greater than ever.”

Yoon said democracies should jointly prepare laws and systems to strictly deal with disinformation, including in cases where foreign agents attempt to sway another country’s elections.

He also called for sharing technologies to confront forces that exploit artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies to produce disinformation, as well as creating new AI and digital systems to locate and eliminate those forces.

“If malicious disinformation and misinformation still cannot be stopped, we must carry out powerful and systematic anti-propaganda that jointly responds to it,” he said.

The three-day summit opened Monday under the theme “Democracy for Future Generations” and brought together representatives from governments, international organizations, academia and civil society.

The gathering was launched by the United States in 2021 with the aim of strengthening democracy and confronting authoritarianism around the world.

Yoon opened the leaders’ plenary with a reminder of the importance of protecting democracy for future generations.

“In our time, democracy vastly expanded individual freedom and human rights. It served as a foundation for global peace and prosperity,” he said. “As leaders, we must take good care of this great legacy called democracy and pass it on to future generations.”