Is it true that the WEF ordered governments around the world to punish citizens for reading fake news on the Internet?

In May 2022, allegations began to spread on social networks that a large-scale attack on freedom of speech was being prepared in the world, behind which the World Economic Forum was standing. We decided to find out if this is true.

Posts about the World Economic Forum, which allegedly ordered governments to pass new laws against freedom of speech, began to appear in the Russian-language segment of social networks in mid-May. In such publications, after the headline about the WEF order to arrest citizens reading fake news on the Internet, other details were reported. Allegedly, the World Economic Forum has ordered to "ban independent media, make it illegal to read non-mainstream news sources, and fill prisons with people who share opinions or articles deemed 'false' by so-called fact writers." Canada and Ireland were cited as examples of countries that had allegedly already begun to comply with the WEF order. Telegram channels, in particular, wrote about this “This is different"(12,500 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Careful vaccination"(6800) and QAnonymous (3800), as well as Facebook users (e.g. Here And Here).

The authors of most posts cite link for publication on The People's Voice website. Previous edition bore the names Your News Wire and NewsPunch. The main content of this resource is articles on topics popular among conspiracy theorists: world government, vaccination, Facebook policy, pedophiles. The publication about the EEF order was signed by Dmitry Baxter. This author has already mentioned in the “Verified” analysis - on the NewsPunch website he wrote about the wife of Vladimir Zelensky, who allegedly spent a large sum in Parisian boutiques. The publication, now known as The People's Voice, is considered one of the main distributors of fake news on the English-speaking Internet - about this a few years ago wrote analysts from the Poynter Institute.

Even more interesting is the story of a man talking about the WEF order in a video in the same article on The People's Voice website. This is Sean Adl-Tabatabaei, whom the media called one of the most influential creators of fakes in the world, founder of Your News Wire. In recent years, he has been actively promoting the theory of a pedophile conspiracy allegedly organized by Hillary Clinton and other influential politicians from the US Democratic Party, known as Pizzagate. On the sites of Adl-Tabatabai also are committed constant information attacks on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom conspiracy theorists call a protege of the world government.

Many publications on The People's Voice are devoted to the orders of the EEF: about how the EEF allegedly ordered reduce the food supply on the planet; on the legalization of pedophilia; about plans lobotomize peopleso that they become 6G transmitters. Most of these statements were considered fact checkers and found to be fake.

The only evidence cited in The People's Voice article of the WEF's order to punish people for reading fake news is a screenshot of a tweet allegedly posted by the WEF's Twitter account. But in present There is no such entry in the verified profile of the World Economic Forum.

The People's Voice publication provides two examples as indirect evidence of the WEF's intentions: laws adopted in Ireland and Canada. In Canada it is indeed April 27, 2023 came into force Law “On Streaming”. The most problematic aspect of the discussion of the document was Article 4(1) - it provided for state control over the content that users upload. A serious discussion has flared up around this point: for example, right-wing conservative Canadian media wrote about the Liberal government's attack on free speech. This clause, however, was removed from the bill back in 2021, which caused dissatisfaction among many members of the Canadian Senate. Senator Paula Simons, who worked as a journalist before her election, explained, that the purpose of the amendment is precisely to protect the copyrights of users, and clarified that it was never about an attack on freedom of speech. Thus, this law has nothing to do with user content, at least in its final version.

However, Canadian legislation does have a provision providing for punishment for fakes. In article 181 of the country's criminal code indicatedthat dissemination of false information harmful to society is punishable by up to two years in prison. But this article has been preserved since the first edition of the criminal code, adopted in 1892, 81 years before creation World Economic Forum.

In Ireland, the law has not yet been adopted; debates continue in the parliament of the republic. This bill has nothing to do with the freedom to read news (fake or not) on the Internet. In it we're talking about about statements that provoke hatred on racial, social, national, religious or gender grounds. Many parliamentarians called the bill is too harsh: for example, in the document indicated, that not only the dissemination of hate speech, but also the possession of relevant materials is considered criminal. To this, in particular, paid attention on Twitter, the son of former US President Donald Trump Jr., who defined the bill as “crazy.” However, until the law is passed, it is not possible to say that in Ireland people are imprisoned for reading fake news (the concept of ownership of materials can be interpreted this way).

Thus, the article, which became the primary source for further dissemination on social networks, contains several layers of false statements. Firstly, manipulation of Canadian legislation and the recently passed Streaming Act. Secondly, there is an understatement in the case of the Irish bill, which is currently under discussion and is indeed being criticized. Finally, the very message about the order of the World Economic Forum is obviously false. Conspiracy theorists, among whom the authors of the article are in the forefront, consider the WEF to be precisely that world government. According to this theory, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - WEF protege, and, for example, French President Emmanuel Macron is a puppet of this organization. This is a classic conspiracy theory, which is supported exclusively by conspiratorial arguments.

Cover photo: screenshot “Verified”

Fake

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