Content generated by AI, propaganda: in 2023, press freedom put to the test by disinformation

Political propaganda, economic manipulation, false content generated by artificial intelligence: disinformation in the broad sense is a major threat to press freedom in the world, alarmed Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in its 21st annual ranking.

Without change, the highest rated country is Norway and the lowest is North Korea. France is 24th and gains two places. Overall, the conditions for practicing journalism are poor in 7 out of 10 countries. This 2023 edition highlights in particular the effects of misinformation.

In two thirds of the 180 countries assessed, the specialists who contribute to the development of the ranking "report the involvement of political actors" in "massive disinformation or propaganda campaigns", according to RSF. This is the case of Russia, India, China or Mali.

More broadly, this ranking "highlights the dazzling effects of the simulacrum industry in the digital ecosystem". “It is the industry that makes it possible to produce disinformation, to distribute it or to amplify it”, explains to AFP Christophe Deloire, secretary general of the NGO.

This is, according to him, the case of "leaders of digital platforms who don't care about distributing propaganda or false information", and whose "typical example" is "the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk". Another phenomenon is fake content created by artificial intelligence (AI). "Midjourney, an AI that generates images in very high definition, is feeding social networks with increasingly plausible fakes," said RSF, citing fake photos of Donald Trump's arrest "taken virally".

We are also witnessing “large-scale manipulative productions” by specialized companies, on behalf of governments or companies. In February, a vast investigation by the collective of investigative journalists Forbidden Stories had thus revealed the activities of an Israeli company called “Team Jorge” and specialized in disinformation.

All of these "unprecedented manipulative capacities are used to weaken those who embody quality journalism, at the same time as they weaken journalism itself", warns RSF. “Reliable information is drowned in a deluge of misinformation,” judge Mr. Deloire, according to whom “we perceive less and less the differences between the real and the artificial, the true and the false”. “One of the major challenges is to put democratic principles back into this gigantic market for attention and content,” he believes.

In the ranking, the most significant drops are observed in Peru (110th, -33 places), Senegal (104th, -31 places), Haiti (99th, -29) or Tunisia (121st, -27). Conversely, Brazil (92nd) moved up 18 places after the departure of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, beaten by Lula in the elections at the end of October. "Brazil had fallen a lot with Bolsonaro, who was violent against journalists", but "there is no inevitability in the decline of press freedom", notes Mr. Deloire.

France, it goes from 26th to 24th place. This “small gain” is explained “in particular because the situation is deteriorating elsewhere”, according to Mr. Deloire. Thus, Germany (21st) lost 5 places, due, according to RSF, to a “record number of violence and arrests of journalists”. In the regional ranking, “the Maghreb/Middle East region remains the most dangerous for journalists” and Europe the one “where the conditions for exercising journalism are the easiest”.

The world ranking of press freedom is compiled by RSF on the basis of “a quantitative survey of abuses committed against journalists” on the one hand, and “a qualitative study” on the other. The latter is based “on the responses of hundreds of press freedom experts (journalists, academics, human rights defenders) to a hundred questions”.