This was the idea advocated by a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson at this years SPIEF economic forum. She was speaking at the “Hoax vs. Truth: challenges of the modern information world” session.
“We are trying to somehow spur a discussion regarding the creation of a certain global mechanism, an instrument that would counteract the spread of false information,” she said. She gave some details about the projects, saying it would involve the collaboration of journalists and news organizations with outreach in various parts of the world.
She said that Russia also advocated working on some kind of framework for snuffing out fake information when it attended the UN’s information committee 2 months ago, but that the U.S. had opposed it.
However, Russia is not known for reliable information coming from its state-run and state-dominated media, and the chief of Germany’s DPA news agency commented that such a program might lead to further censorship and a new “Ministry of Truth.”