Human rights in the age of

Prohibition on propaganda
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“
Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law. Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that 
constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.” - Article 20 of the ICCPR
Looking forward: Just as people can use AI-powered technology to facilitate the spread of disinformation 
or influence public debate, they can use it to create and propagate content designed to incite war, 
discrimination, hostility, or violence. We can see the potential for this scenario in the disputes between 
Russia and Ukraine over Crimea. Russia has tested now widely known disinformation tactics in attempts 
to undermine the public’s faith in the media.
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Governments around the world have deployed “troll armies” 
to stoke the flames of conflict for political ends.
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In the near future, they could use chatbots to incite racial 
and ethnic violence in regions that are already rife with tension, or deploy deep fakes to simulate world 
leaders declaring war or instigating armed conflict.
92 Sam Levin, “New AI can guess whether you’re gay or straight from a photograph,” The Guardian, September 7, 2017, https://www.theguardian.
com/technology/2017/sep/07/new-artificial-intelligence-can-tell-whether-youre-gay-or-straight-from-a-photograph, and Lewis, “Facial recognition 
can tell if you’re gay.” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/07/artificial-intelligence-can-tell-your-sexuality-politics-surveillance-paul-
lewis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other.
93 Article 21 of the UDHR, Article 25 of the ICCPR
94 Article 20 of the ICCPR
95 After the massive 2014 pro-democracy protests in Ukraine that resulted in the ouster of Pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, Russia began a 
massive disinformation campaign to discredit the new government and encourage separatists to initiate the current civil war. See: Gregory Warner, “What 
Americans Can Lean From Fake News in Ukraine,” Rough Translation, audio podcast, August 21, 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/08/21/544952989/rough-
translation-what-americans-can-learn-from-fake-news-in-ukraine.
96 White, “troll armies,” Access Now.

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accessnow.org
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