International humanitarian law for cyber warfare: DEWG 5/5/2022 Hawaii #3

K.S. Park’s remark: I am very moved that the defense arms of the government arms are making such impassioned efforts to counter disinformation squarely the hard way without trying to sweep them under the rug with criminal laws or intermediary liability laws. Even the government at knife point is investing in these rather delicate discussion. The discussion confirms my belief that resilience building, fact checking and counter speech are the only way to fight.

There must be replication of these efforts with other state actors.  Maybe, there should be greater coordination with the U.S. State Department that is more sensitive to international human rights concerns. Otherwise, the state actors concerned about disinformation will go on criminalizing disinformation in the Indo-Pacific region, responding with more disinformation and more gov’t propaganda, in the end threatening democracy. For instance, the negotiators of EU’s Digital Services Act are discussing emergency powers of EU to control platforms in times of conflicts as a crisis management mechanism.

A new crisis response mechanism for the DSA

Disinformation takes roots in lack of information and group division by these governments.  It is the countries passing these fake news laws that are passing around the most fake news.  We have seen that example in a former United States president.  Resilience building, fact checking and counter speech are the only way to fight.

Governments should use tax dollars to fight back against disinformation in resilience building, fact checking and counter speech. In conflict situation, governments may even engage in IW/IO. The U.S. military already has the Information Operation rules and raising it to the level of international humanitarian law (of course, after much improvement) may be in order.

See also K.S. Park’s Opening Remark http://old.opennetkorea.org/en/wp/3688

See also Protection of Civilians in Information Warfare/Information Operation http://old.opennetkorea.org/en/wp/3691