The United Nations has adopted a global agreement to turn the internet into a “safe” space free of posts it considers “hate speech and discrimination, misinformation and disinformation.” The accord asks social media companies to turn over users’ messages that contain “misinformation,” so that researchers can draw up government policies on “how to address” disfavored views on the information superhighway. Ultimately, the pact will “advance international governance” of the internet and the development of artificial intelligence. And it vows to engage the government, the “private sector, civil society, international organizations, the technical and academic communities and all other stakeholders” to fulfill the U.N.’s designs.

The United Nations adopted the sweeping new guidelines at this week’s Summit of the Future, a global conference designed to “turbo-charge” the world’s march toward implementing its globalist Sustainable Development Guidelines (SDGs). Officials at the two-day meeting appended the Global Digital Compact (GDC) to the Pact for the Future and adopted it without a vote. “The GDC is the most comprehensive global agreement to date on digital cooperation,” Renata Dawn, special adviser to the office of the U.N. Secretary-General’s envoy on technology, told Euronews.

In Article 27 of the Pact for the Future, the United Nations vows, “We will seize the opportunities associated with new and emerging technologies and address the potential risks posed by their misuse.” It seems many constitutionally protected activities would fall under the global governance body’s definition of “misuse.” 

The GDC appears poised to strain out and suppress posts that clash with the official orthodoxy of the United Nations’ secular globalist worldview. The agreement aims to “counter ... all forms of hate speech and discrimination, misinformation and disinformation,” and “cyberbullying,” which it places in the same category as “child sexual exploitation and abuse.” None of these terms are defined in the agreement. Members vow “to promote information integrity, tolerance and respect in the digital space” and end “all forms of discrimination.”

Global governance institutions have intensified efforts to stifle opposing viewpoints under the guise of fighting “misinformation.” The 2021 report from U.N. Secretary-General which set the stage for this week’s summit, titled “Our Common Agenda,” states: “The ability to disseminate large-scale disinformation to undermine scientifically established facts poses an existential risk to humanity and endangers democratic institutions and fundamental human rights.”

The GDC would also curtail “information manipulation” in order to create a “equitable digital environment.” Such a policy would bolster the Biden-Harris administration’s national policies. USAID Administrator Samantha Power unveiled a new provision this month targeting “information manipulation campaigns, often targeting marginalized groups, particularly women, girls, and LGBTQI+ communities.” C-FAM.org reported that the Biden-Harris administration “double[d] the USAID budget for digital infrastructure from $15 million to $30 million,” which “will be used to train and hire ‘content moderators’ and ‘data enrichment workers; who classify information that trains artificial intelligence to detect and censor content deemed to be harmful” by administration officials’ standards.

In a similar vein, United Nations officials promise by 2030 to turn the internet into “a safe and secure online space for all users that ensures their mental health and well-being by defining and adopting common standards, guidelines and industry actions that are in compliance with international law, promote safe civic spaces and address content on digital platforms that causes harm to individuals.” These “common standards” must be drawn up after “taking into account work under way by United Nations entities, regional organizations and multi-stakeholder initiatives.”

The pact does not define discrimination, nor how it would gauge whether posts negatively impact a reader’s “mental health.” Radical transgender activists insist that addressing them by biologically accurate pronouns constitutes a form of violence.

The GDC attempts to reassure that it will not violate freedom of speech but uses a unique sleight-of-hand in its wording: Members agree to “[r]efrain from imposing restrictions on the free flow of information and ideas,” but then clarifies it only bars nations from suppressing free speech in ways “that are inconsistent with obligations under international law.” That frees governments to impose speech restrictions that are consistent with international law. The pact makes this explicit later, saying, “We will strengthen international cooperation to address the challenge of misinformation and disinformation and hate speech online and mitigate the risks of information manipulation in a manner consistent with international law.” By 2030, nations must “[d]evelop data and metadata standards designed to prevent and address bias, discrimination or human rights violations and abuses throughout the data life cycle, including through regular data auditing.”

The U.N. pact promises to develop and decide on a set of “inclusive” internet “safeguards” and “best practices” on “addressing harms” from a free internet, which will be implemented across the entire digital space. These guidelines will “inform Governments, the private sector and other stakeholders,” the pact says.

These guidelines will be drawn up when social media companies turn over users’ posts that U.N. officials believe contain misinformation. “We further urgently … [c]all on social media platforms to provide researchers access to data, with safeguards for user privacy, to ensure transparency and accountability to build an evidence base on how to address misinformation and disinformation and hate speech that can inform government and industry policies, standards and best practices,” the GDC states.

The GDC treats the internet and such emerging technologies as artificial intelligence as mere tools for advancing the U.N.’s political agenda. “Digital technologies … hold out the promise of accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. We can only achieve this through strengthened international cooperation,” it states. “We recognize that the Internet is a critical global facility for inclusive and equitable digital transformation,” states the GDC. “We will … [h]elp to build capacities, especially in developing countries, to access, develop, use and govern artificial intelligence systems and direct them towards the pursuit of sustainable development.”

“We have a unique opportunity, through this Compact, to advance international governance of artificial intelligence,” U.N. officials state. “We recognize the immense potential of artificial intelligence systems to accelerate progress across all the Sustainable Development Goals. We will govern artificial intelligence in the public interest,” the pact says.

But a free and unrestricted internet can allow the “manipulation of and interference with information in ways that are harmful to … the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals,” the document frets. “We will champion the responsible use and sharing of data within and between countries to advance progress across the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Promoting the SDGs could be read to promote abortion-on-demand. The U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals commit all signatories to “ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning” by 2030 (3.7). Although the United Nations has specifically stated that it does not consider abortion a global “right,” the Biden-Harris administration interprets “family planning” and “reproductive rights” to include abortion; Kamala Harris has repeatedly said she considers “reproductive freedom” a human right. A government with that worldview could invoke powers created under the new global pact to throttle the reach of pro-life internet posts or otherwise counteract their message.

The U.N. document may also build a network for telemed abortion in a provision that promises, by 2030, to “enhance telemedicine services and capabilities” (11d). Since the 2022 Dobbs decision, the abortion industry has resorted to dispensing the abortion pill after a virtual visit, including in states that bar such activities. Such visits prevent women from being tested for ectopic pregnancies and other deficiencies that might cost them their health, or their lives. 

The guidelines aim granting the United Nations an unprecedented level of control over the internet and online technologies broadly speaking. Objective 5 of the pact promises to “[e]nhance international governance of artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity.” The U.N. agreement wants to assure all technologies “do no harm.” Similar to the proposed WHO Pandemic Agreement, the GDC believes all online activities and technologies should “promote public trust” in government officials. To this end, the GDC calls on officials to initiate a “Global Dialogue on AI Governance” at the 79th General Assembly of the United Nations, taking place now through Friday.

Experts say the size, scope, and top-down, whole-of-society nature of the agreement should concern everyone interested in the free exchange of ideas — especially those not favored by the United Nations.

“Not only are national governments dangerously ignoring the free speech principles so blithely cast aside by this document, but they are ceding the freedom of their entire peoples by willingly sacrificing to the U.N. decision-making authority and governance questions that should be left within national borders,” Travis Weber, vice president for Policy and Government Affairs at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “They are abdicating their responsibility to lead their people. They don’t want the buck to stop with them, and their people will end up suffering because of it.”