Disinformation is false or misleading content that is spread with an intention to deceive or secure economic or political gain. It has the potential to cause public harm. We have seen its negative effects during the coronavirus pandemic with a huge amount of false information circulating around the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) eventually stated that in addition to the pandemic itself citizens of the world were also victims of an ‘infodemic’ - an overabundance of information, both online and offline including deliberate attempts to disseminate wrong information to undermine the public health response and advance alternative agendas of groups or individuals. Such false information (for instance, “The COVID-19 virus transmits through water while swimming” or “The COVID-19 virus can be spread through mosquito bites”) causes confusion and risk-taking behaviours that can harm health.

But, disinformation goes beyond the coronavirus. It can be motivated by either economic or political gains. If the direct and indirect impact of disinformation are difficult to quantify, we know that disinformation campaigns designed specifically to sow mistrust and confusion have long-term implications. Disinformation erodes trust in institutions and in media and harms democracies by hampering the ability of citizens to take informed decisions.

Disinformation is also happening in Mauritius. This was particularly evident during the coronavirus pandemic. A lot of ‘fake news’ have been circulating amid the pandemic fuelling fear and anxiety among citizens. In June 2020, Mauritius was among the 13 countries calling for global action against COVID-19 'infodemic'. But disinformation is also taking place beyond the pandemic. Back in 2019, the Bank of Mauritius had to alert the public about a fake communiqué entitled ‘Staff Communiqué – In the matter of the Mauritius General Elections’ and purporting to emanate from the Central Bank was posted on Facebook. More recently, the national regulator for the ICT sector has had to issue several communiqués to alert users of social media applications on the circulation of false information purportedly released by its services. This week, a large group has had to issue a statement informing the public that false information, including a fake interview of the CEO, promoting a cryptocurrency platform using the group’s name was being circulated on social media. This shows that disinformation is becoming more and more a regular feature in all spheres of activity.

Image

In the EU-Mauritius Political Dialogue of November 2022, the EU expressed interest in sharing its experience and expertise with Mauritius in tackling disinformation and exploring ways to work with Mauritius through media literacy and training to develop critical thinking among the public and help them to learn and deal with fake news.

It is in this context that we have organised a round table on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) including disinformation, for the media, civil society and national authorities. Fifteen participants (including from the national ICT regulator and the Computer Emergency Response Team, 4 members of the EU-Mauritius Youth Forum, 4 media outlets and 1 representative from the University of Mauritius) attended the round table on 9 March 2023. Two European experts, namely Mr Siim KUMPAS, Policy Officer at the East StratCom Task Force, a Task Force that was set up within the European External Action Service (EEAS) to address Russia's ongoing disinformation campaigns and Mr Hannes KRAUSE, Indian Ocean Region Coordinator for the Cyber4Dev programme, made a comprehensive presentation on three important topics, namely:

1. Conceptual introduction to the current information environment and information disorder
2. The role of social media platforms and digital service providers in information disorder and countering disinformation
3. Building resilience against disinformation using a whole-of-society approach - The case of Estonia.

Following the presentation, participants had the opportunity to interact with the experts and to share their views on the subject. We handed over to the participants an electronic copy of the two reports on FIMI published this year by the European External Action Service (EEAS).

In his opening statement, H.E.Mr Vincent Degert, Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Mauritius stated :

- “Disinformation is constantly evolving and becoming more complex. It is present across different realms of the society including migration, health and politics. If lying is a problem, the bigger problem is that we believe in those lies. Disinformation is hence a “whole-of-society” problem. Therefore, the response has to be based on a “whole-of-society’’ approach aimed at raising awareness of the media, civil society and individuals on how disinformation works, including through education and media literacy. Also, let me add that preventing the spread of toxic information on information platforms, is not about attacking freedom of speech, on the contrary, it is about protecting it.”

The two European experts were in Mauritius for a training on “Understanding and Building Resilience against Disinformation in a Democratic Society” organised in Mauritius on 7-8 March 2023 as part of the Cyber Resilience for Development (Cyber4Dev) project. The Cyber4Dev project is a European Union project designed to promote cyber-resilience and cybersecurity in order to protect public and private enterprises across the globe.