The World Economic Forum (WEF), an unelected global organization that seeks to โshape global, regional and industry agendas,โ has announced the schedule for its 2023 annual meeting which includes a panel on countering โmisinformation.โ
The panel is titled โCountering Threats in the Age of Black Swansโ and will take place on January 18, 2023 at 9 am Eastern Standard Time (EST).
The description for the panel doesnโt define misinformation but claims that โa wide range of actorsโ have access to โan ever-increasing capacity to spread misinformation.โ This capacity, according to the WEF, is supposedly compounding โthreats that were once considered outliers.โ
During the panel, speakers will discuss how to predict, mitigate, and counter these threats that are supposedly aggravated by misinformation.
While the panel description doesnโt define misinformation, a recent post promoting the WEFโs annual meeting suggests that the group deems criticism of the WEF and challenging mainstream Covid-19 narratives to be misinformation.
In this post, the WEF complains that it has been targeted by โdisinformation campaignsโ and links to another post where its managing director, Adrian Monck, suggests that criticism of the WEFโs controversial โYouโll own nothing and youโll be happyโ slogan is tied to a โmisinformation campaign.โ
In addition to branding criticism of this slogan misinformation, Monck also laments โmisinformation concerning COVID-19 and vaccines.โ
Not only does Monck brand these topics misinformation but he also claims that โmisinformation derails free speechโ and calls for โaction to prevent lies being accepted as truth.โ
This post by Monck is one of many examples of the WEF pushing for the censorship of what it deems to be misinformation. The WEF and the global leaders that attend its meetings have previously outlined how Big Tech partners with intergovernmental organizations like the United Nations (UN) to tackle disinformation, demanded that social media companies crack down on โrumors,โ and pushed for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to censor misinformation.