States Use Disinformation about Minority Faiths

States use disinformation: Religious freedom head says U.S. report on freedom of religion should include Japan among states painting black picture of minority religions 

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued on 8^th August 2024 an important report titled “Misinformation and Disinformation: Implications for Freedom of Religion or Belief”.

The report points out that governments are spreading false claims about religious minorities. This can increase intolerance and violence and seriously restrict freedom of religion or belief (FoRB).

Countries like China, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia use both misinformation and disinformation to target religious minorities, leading to harassment and violence.

Misinformation refers to false or inaccurate claims, whereas disinformation involves the intentional spread of such false or inaccurate claims.

The US report states,

“Governments spreading false claims about religious minorities represent a global challenge to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). As USCIRF has highlighted, social media and the internet allow these claims to spread faster and wider than ever before.”

According to the report, states restrict freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in two ways when spreading misinformation and disinformation about religious communities. Firstly, such false information can increase intolerance among individuals who believe these claims, leading them to harass, intimidate, or threaten certain religious groups. Secondly, it sends a message to minority faith communities that the government will not protect their religious freedoms and may even seek to limit them. This perception can make community members feel unsafe in practicing, teaching, worshiping, and observing their beliefs, causing many to self-censor or avoid exercising their religious freedom altogether.

In an article 15^th August in Bitter Winter, the leading online magazine on religious liberty and human rights, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Massimo Introvigne, internationally well-known Italian sociologist of religion, praises the American report, but adds that it could have included that also several democratic states spread disinformation about religious minorities.

Introvigne points out that these tactics are also employed by governments in democratic countries. The United Nations has condemned the falsehoods spread against the Unification Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan. Argentina endorses debunked “brainwashing” theories to discriminate against religious minorities and accuse them of human trafficking. Courts in France and Belgium have found governmental anti-cult agencies guilty of spreading false information about Jehovah’s Witnesses. Governmental reports on child sexual abuse in countries like Australia and New Zealand have also misrepresented Jehovah’s Witnesses’ stance on abuse. China and Russia are not the only nations spreading disinformation against marginalized minorities.

The US report mentions steps taken to combat disinformation from governments,

“In January 2024, the U.S. Department of State released a Framework to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation, which calls for ensuring the “protection of marginalized groups” from misinformation and disinformation. The framework has been endorsed by Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom. It is also the basis of several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with countries including Bulgaria, Japan, Albania, Latvia, Moldova, Republic of Korea, and Poland. In its ongoing promotion of this framework, it is critical that the U.S. government and its multilateral partners also emphasize the profound harms that government misinformation and disinformation have on the ability of targeted religious groups to exercise their right to FoRB.”

The report urges continued development of strategies to counter misinformation and disinformation to protect Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB).

Text: Knut Holdhus

Featured image above: Facsimiles from header of page with the USCIRF’s report published 8th August 2024.

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