This headline has been widely shared on X, along with an article from online platform The People’s Voice as its key source, with the most viewed post netting over a million views, and many others reposting and reacting to it.According to the headline, the United Nations (UN) has vowed to imprison X users who share misinformation online. The claim post also goes further – stating that the UN has issued orders to world leaders to “begin arresting” citizens who spread misinformation, and that those leaders have signed a declaration making it a criminal offence to spread non-mainstream content online. However, given that the original source (a platform we have covered in detail in previous fact-checks) is known for misleading headlines and seemingly intentional misinterpretations of original source material, we took a closer look.
The United Nations recently concluded the UN Alliance of Civilizations 10th Global Forum, which was held in Portugal in late November with prominent world leaders and political figures in attendance. Named for the city in which the forum was held and affirming a 25-point list of “innovative actions and keys” for peace, the Cascais Declaration was agreed upon by members of the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Group of Friends (which include 131 states). The entire declaration is available in full online, although it was not linked in the claim article and post.
The first two lines from The People’s Voice article directly state:
“The United Nations has ordered world leaders to begin arresting citizens who share content on social media sites that challenges the official narrative. World leaders all signed a new UN ‘Cascais Declaration’ which makes it a criminal offence to spread non-mainstream content online.”
Reading the declaration and carrying out specific word searches, it is immediately clear that there is no mention of criminalisation, arrests, or “non-mainstream content.” Rather, out of the 25 points, the only tangentially related statement is point 19: “Stress the importance of combating disinformation, misinformation and hate speech, while strengthening information integrity.” As they have done on numerous previous occasions, it appears that The People’s Voice made completely and demonstrably untrue statements which completely misrepresent the original source.
There was no “order” from the United Nations for world leaders to “begin arrests” and the Cascais Declaration made no mention of criminalisation of “non-mainstream content.” What did happen was that members of the UNAOC affirmed their intention to combat disinformation, misinformation and hate speech as part of a wider dialogue and forum on “restoring trust and for uniting in peace.”
We give this claim a rating of false.
While it is perhaps unsurprising that platforms such as The People’s Voice might perceive a push against mis/disinformation as a threat to their content, this claim has had a wide reach on X in particular – with many commenters seemingly taking it at face value.By playing into existing narratives about certain groups and views being suppressed or censored, the claim strikes a nerve – making it both easier (for certain audiences) to believe and less likely to be critically examined or double-checked.
Ironically, this claim itself is a clear example of how mis/disinformation spreads regardless of how accessible the original source is – and how information integrity continues to be something to strive for as fact-checkers and consumers of digital content.