There’s been a lot of talk about the United Nations (UN) and its actions of late – mostly, those actions that fall way beyond the scope of what its founding Charter designates the organization’s role to be.
As a short history reminder – the UN is basically the international body that succeeded the League of Nations – the one that failed to prevent the (previous, atrocious) world war.
The UN is – and has, for a long time, focused its energy on “doing better” – mediating, providing a neutral ground for dialogue, helping those places around the globe unfortunately afflicted by local wars since 1945 – and just in general, not repeating the mistake of its predecessor of miring itself into irrelevancy.
You would think that with the real danger of another global war now on the cards, that would take up all of the UN’s energy and focus. But you would be wrong.
Here’s the UN, dabbling in things like alleged “hate speech.”
But – world peace – that’s supposed to be the mission. Not policing social media for dubiously defined “hate speech.”
The UN is now using its always precarious resources (depending on member-countries’ contribution, and, consequently, the way the organization satisfies the biggest contributors’ own agendas) to deal with things like real or perceived “hate speech” online.
But can that really be the mission of the world organization set up to make sure another world war doesn’t happen, and help/mediate in regional conflicts?
It seems almost absurd. Yet here it is. The UN is reported to be descending into internet censorship by “encouraging” people to report one another for hate speech online.
Really? That’s your mission now? How about providing food and drinking water to warzones and brokering peace deals?
One way to fade into obscurity as a trusted and impartial broker, is for an organization to put out statements like this.
Let’s not worry about a nuclear Armageddon – instead, what steps can we take to “combat” those pesky tweets? /s
Well, according to a UN tweet – there’s as many as eight: “pause, fact-check, react, challenge, support, report, educate, and commit.”
It would be comical, if it wasn’t ultimately smacking of tragedy.
