SEOUL: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday called fake news and disinformation based on AI and digital technology threats to democracy, as some officials attending a global summit.
Speaking at the opening of the Summit for Democracy being held in Seoul, Yoon said countries had a duty to share experiences and wisdom so that artificial intelligence and technology could be employed to promote democracy.
"Fake news and disinformation based on artificial intelligence and digital technology not only violates individual freedom and human rights but also threatens democratic systems," Yoon said.
South Korea is hosting the third Summit for Democracy conference, an initiative of U.S. President Joe Biden aimed at discussing ways to stop democratic backsliding and erosion of rights and freedoms.
Digital threats to democracy, and how technology can promote democracy and universal human rights, are expected to be the main agenda of the three-day meetings, attended by representatives from more than 30 countries, ranging from Costa Rica to the United States and Ghana.
"As authoritarian and repressive regimes deploy technologies to undermine democracy and human rights, we need to ensure that technology sustains and supports democratic values and norms," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the summit.
Blinken later said 2024 was an "extraordinary election year" to highlight risks of disinformation and falsehoods in cyberspace. He also repeated Washington's accusations that Russia and China are behind global campaigns aimed at manipulating information.
Some European officials also accused Russia of conducting disinformation campaigns using AI.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied accusations of spreading false or misleading information.
Hours before the summit started, North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the sea for the first time in two months in its latest show of force.
The democracy summit is also being attended by British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, who said democracy faced threats on multiple fronts, including cyberattackers disrupting campaigns, populists embracing falsehoods, and "autocrats holding sham elections."
Blinken said Washington was releasing the first guidance of its kind for tech companies to help prevent attacks on human rights defenders online.
In addition, he said at the summit that a half-dozen more countries, including South Korea and Japan, were joining a U.S.-led
crackdown on the misuse of commercial spyware to surveil journalists or human rights defenders. — Reuters
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