“The state’s ‘cyber patrol’ is a strategy that restricts individual freedoms and online expression,” Flip on MinDefensa campaign

On May 6, the Ministry of Defense launched the “The Truth in a Sea of ​​Lies #ColombiaEsMiVerdad” campaign, an initiative to end the fake news generated as part of the national strike.

“They are trying to block us but we continue to defend the Colombians, information like this is digital terrorism and it is wrong, we are all protecting Colombia”, the strategy video said while observing various Twitter accounts sharing information that the ministry said was bogus.

“They said it was ESMAD that set the Luna Hotel in Cali on fire, but the truth is that it was insane vandals who set it on fire and killed it, while the police and the citizens slept there, thus putting an end to the business of a Colombian “, was the message Minister Molano delivered in this video.

A few weeks after the campaign was published, the Press Freedom Foundation, FLIP, spoke out on Tuesday, stating that this proposal “it goes against the basic principles of a democratic society and aims to censor through criminalization. This strategy has a direct impact on journalism, because undermines the guarantees of their exercise and endangers the physical safety and integrity of journalists ”, manifested by a post.

The FLIP text specifies that since its launch, the Military Forces and the Minister of Defense have reiterated that websites and profiles that discredit the work of the police in the context of social demonstrations would engage in terrorist activities.

“In their posts there are several screenshots of social media content with a large tag that says ‘FALSE’ while saying ‘digital terrorism is a dangerous threat to democracy’. In addition, the national police publish fake news daily “, Said FLIP.

The foundation’s statement reveals some of the publications the ministry has made on content it has deemed false. “On May 13, the national police published a video in which they assures that 86 false contents have been identified, he says that 43 of them are against the police and that” they transmit the wrong messages to call for violence and to disorder “.

On the other hand, they assured that “the cybernetic center of the police force made 733 requests for suspension, while 37 profiles and 107 publications were deleted”. Likewise, on May 23, the Ministry of Defense published on its Twitter account a cyber-patrol bulletin of the national strike, in which they point out that they found 111 fake news on social networks and that after that they would have generated 26,000 “preventive actions”. .

“Government surveillance and tracking of citizen conversations permeates the freedom to speak out and impacts what people write and discuss on social media. Likewise, this campaign is based on the assumption that all network users may be guilty of a crime and must therefore be monitored, thus eliminating the presumption of innocence ”, specifies the FLIP in its text.

Likewise, they said the actions are arbitrary, as they are also based on ambiguous and imprecise concepts, such as “fake news” or “digital terrorism”. “The government has decided to ignore its obligation to guarantee the freedom to criticize as well as to be able to denounce abuses by public officials ”, they said.

FLIP says that on May 15, it sent a right of petition to the Minister of Defense for more information about the campaign, but that has yet to be answered. Likewise, with this statement, the foundation expressed five reasons why it believes the strategy affects freedom of speech and of the press.

1. “The threat of using the criminal law to discourage some coverage is clearly contrary to Inter-American standards for the protection of press freedom ”.

2. For FLIP, it is irresponsible to use the expression “digital terrorism”, without there being a clear and precise explanation of what this term is considered to be. Without such an explanation, the use of the expression it’s a stigmatizing act against those who criticized the government and, in particular, the Ministry of Defense. Until the administration provides an explanation in accordance with the Constitution on the use of these technologies for activities that endanger human rights, in particular freedom of expression, and on the use of categories “cyberterrorism”, “digital terrorism”, “cyber patrol” “cybermilitant”, we will understand them as a reckless and dangerous label for freedom of expression and public debate ”.

3. Likewise, the Press Freedom Foundation believes that it is harmless for an organ of national government to try to determine the veracity of an article, especially since there are no guidelines. and past goals.

“Administrative authorities are not called upon to prosecute information produced by third parties, without prejudice to the fact that they may set them against official information to promote public debate.”

4. “The labeling of “fake” social media posts, in which photos and account usernames appear, is discriminatory when there are no a priori, clear and objective parameters to qualify the information. Without this, a risk to the integrity of those that appear indicated in the screenshots may be generated.

5. Finally, FLIP believes that ranking based on opinions expressed online violates the right to freedom of expression., since “opinions should not be used to categorize the population, because they are sensitive data. Otherwise, it leads to discrimination based on political orientation, which is expressly prohibited by the Constitution ”.

For all of the above, the foundation urged the nation’s attorney general’s office and ombudsperson’s office to monitor those strategies of the defense ministry and military forces, “which require that the collection and processing of digital communications should be limited in scope and controlled so that these oversight procedures are subject to public scrutiny and implemented in a transparent manner ” The Flip has ended.

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