Rasma Ramoskaite – Keynote 03 24

18 June 2024 | 10:00 EEST | Auditorium | |
Consolidated programme 2024 / Keynote

Rasma Ramoskaite, Director at Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania

Video record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3jOyWrvo9M&t=120s

Transcript

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Transcripts and more session details were provided by the Geneva Internet Platform

Rasma Ramoskaite: So, hello, good morning. Is it working? Okay, perfect. Welcome to Vilnius. It’s my pleasure to welcome you to Vilnius on this beautiful summer day and welcome to those who are in Vilnius for the first time. And it’s, of course, a great pleasure for us to host Vilnius Eurodic here in our city as one of the featured events of our presidency for the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. So, digital dimension of freedom, including artificial intelligence and human rights, as well as fight against disinformation, is very important for Lithuania. It’s been the cross-cutting priority across the multiple fora, so it was only very natural that it was also chosen as one of our priorities for the presidency. So, no doubt, the digital transformation offers unprecedented opportunities for human development and innovation, with the potential to generate social and economic benefits. And as has been said, they can contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, yet they also present risks for human dignity, autonomy, and privacy. Hostile actors are also using rapidly advancing artificial intelligence and other hybrid tools to boost existing information manipulation strategies and spread their lies, especially on social media platforms. That has been one of the concerns we were trying to address at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We have many worrying signals that platforms are less collaborative and avoid compliance with the EU Digital Service Act and the EU Code of Practice on disinformation, so we must continue to work together to oblige platforms to comply with the rules. The EU is a powerful market of 500 million people, and platforms shall take into consideration the values and principles of the European way of life. This trend is particularly worrying, and I have been discussing the number I have here in my notes with another keynote speaker. This trend is worrying because 71% of the world’s population are now living under the authoritarian rule. So, when I heard this number first, I think, in the meeting in Vienna with a representative of Media Freedom, I really was shocked by this number. I thought this is a shocking number, and it creates a huge challenge for us. So, it’s necessary to find a response not limited only to the European region. This number definitely tells we need to ensure that fundamental principles of fairness, non-discrimination, transparency, and legitimacy are applied globally when artificial intelligence is designed, developed, and then eventually used in ways that promote respect for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. So, in this light, and coming back to the Council of Europe, I’m very happy and proud that the Council of Europe adopted the first-ever Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law. And we’re especially honored that we will have the opportunity to open this convention for signature in Vilnius on the 5th of September, and giving this convention the Vilnius Convention name. So, it’s a huge honor for us. It is the very first legally binding treaty to establish a global minimum standard for protecting human rights from risks posed by artificial intelligence. And it serves as a policy framework that signals the direction of the future regulations and aims to align procedures at the international level. And as I mentioned before, it’s very important to work not only regionally, but at the international level. We believe that this convention, among the other related developments within Europe, is setting the scene for addressing the potential issues globally, and we should use it to our advantage. So now, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to briefly touch upon the aspect of disinformation, which has been at the key of our foreign policy efforts. As I mentioned before, in the different multilateral fora, I myself joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, coming back from New York, where I was working at the mission to the end, and disinformation was one of my key topics. We really tried to promote, raise awareness, and to share our experience and good practices developed here in Lithuania with our international partners. Talking about disinformation, we’re deeply concerned about the growing spread of it online, and it puts democracies and human rights at risk, erodes public trust in democratic processes and institutions, so Lithuania actively supports efforts to counter negative impact of disinformation on human rights nationally and internationally. We adopted a comprehensive, whole-of-society approach to combating disinformation, engaging state institutions, NGOs, media, and businesses, and we believe that preventing the spread of harmful narratives is crucial. So, needless to say, we all live in the very difficult world right now, and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is ongoing for already two and a half years, and Kremlin’s propaganda machine continues to create a parallel reality of lies and malign influences, both inside Russia and worldwide. Faced with restrictions within the EU, Russian propaganda channels are looking for other fertile ground to stir ethnic conflict and accelerate instability, and one of the examples, again, that was when the information was revealed to me back when I was working to our mission in New York was the information about what is the first channel for the information in Latin America for finding some news about what’s happening in Ukraine. So, it was very shocking to find out that actually Russia invested so much into its propaganda and disinformation efforts that it actually translates one of their channels, RIA Novosti, into Spanish, and this is the first channel where people are actually looking for the news on what’s happening in Ukraine, so you can imagine what kind of news they find there. So, it is key to continue to enhance our strategic communication capacities and joint actions to counter foreign information manipulation and interference. Another aspect of this information that is almost never assessed is economic damage. The cost of responding to malicious actions, human resources, organizational costs, other security investments, is actually very significant. So, by taking a firm stance and reducing the spread of disinformation, we will also reduce the economic costs to respond and mitigate the damage caused by foreign information manipulation and interference. So, EU already possesses legal instruments to combat disinformation and propaganda, and it is essential to use them wisely. So, to date, the EU has suspended the broadcasting activities and licenses of around 20 Kremlin-backed disinformation outlets. However, broader and more comprehensive measures are needed to suspend the channels that are controlled by maligned state actors. So, coming back to Lithuania again, we have centralized disinformation monitoring at the National Crisis Management Center, helping to ensure quick detention and rapid state response. Cyber attacks are dealt with the National Cyber Security Center under the Ministry of Defense, and we also have the necessary legislation to deal with hostile information attacks against Lithuania, ensuring the flexibility to adapt as threats evolve. One more thing I wanted to mention in this regard is that Lithuania, in collaboration with the OECD, developed a training program for international experts to counter disinformation and other malign foreign influences. So, with strong international partnerships, we are able to work in a more coordinated manner for protecting human rights in the digital realm. And the first training session has already taken place with participants from 14 countries. So, ladies and gentlemen, your participants in Europe, as I said, already have legal instruments and know-how to deal with the digital threats. And I’m confident that we can offer these and contribute towards the ongoing efforts to shape the global digital agenda. So, one of the examples I wanted to mention here is the Global Digital Compact proposed by the United Nations Secretary General. And as he outlined, the Digital Compact is another step towards having a common approach, and it strives to promote a digital ecosystem that is more inclusive, interconnected, innovative, and competitive. Simultaneously, it addresses the escalating global security concerns relating to preventing and countering cyber attacks, hybrid threats, and disinformation. As a country, nationally, Lithuania closely monitors the progress of the Global Digital Compact, and we recognize its significance to the global standard setting. Similarly to the process of the Council of Europe AI Convention, we believe that the meaningful multi-stakeholder approach is key here, and we strongly advocate for the Global Digital Compact to involve civil society, including groups of vulnerable and marginalized positions, the private sector, and other relevant actors with the expertise of the subject matter. And the work with civil society, the work from the grassroots, it’s gaining the importance again, coming back to the number of the autocratic regimes that prevail now in the world. In the slide, I also wanted to mention that it is important to enhance the synergies between different instruments and initiatives that contribute to the Global Digital Agenda. We need to avoid duplication and to clarify the roles and linkages of existing agencies, forests, instruments that work on the subject matter, because it also creates a necessary financial burden due to the establishment of overlapping… mandates and bodies and mechanisms. So in this slide, I just wanted to stress that we attach the great importance to the ITU’s role in addressing the global connectivity and new technological challenges, including artificial intelligence. Also, the Internet Governance Forum must be acknowledged by strengthening its role in internet governance policy processes. So to conclude, I want to wish everyone fruitful discussions and tangible outcomes throughout the rest of EuroDIG here in Vilnius. I believe that it will lead to the meaningful impact both on the European and global level. Hopefully you can address some of the issues that I have also highlighted here in my short speech. And at the same time, I want to also to reaffirm Lithuania’s commitment to ensure that our digital future reflects our common values and serves our benefit instead of posing threats. And with that, I thank you.