Microsoft chief says Russia is spreading Middle East disinformation

Microsoft chief says Russia is spreading Middle East disinformation

Smith said Microsoft and its rivals were fighting against disinformation
Smith said Microsoft and its rivals were fighting against disinformation. Photo: Ludovic MARIN / POOL/AFP
Source: AFP

Russia has been spreading "disinformation" about the situation in the Middle East, the president of Microsoft said Saturday, as tensions soar in the region due to the Israel-Hamas war.

Brad Smith, Microsoft vice chair and president, was asked about the role of the US tech giant in promoting peace at an international peace forum in Paris.

He said that Microsoft and its competitors were fighting against disinformation, in particular by using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Smith said that Microsoft and other companies are doing this "by creating technological tools that facilitate the detection of manipulated, modified, altered content," according to remarks translated in French by radio France Inter.

"We are getting very good at identifying a Russian campaign, like when they tried to tell people not to get the Covid vaccine," he said.

Read also

Xi, Biden to meet next week to 'stabilize' ties, US says

"Or today, when we see Russian disinformation in the Middle East," he added.

He said the three options facing technology platforms that identify this kind of disinformation are to do nothing, delete it, or re-label it and flag the content has been modified.

"There is no societal consensus about what companies should do," Smith added.

Th Paris Peace Forum opened against a backdrop of proliferating conflict around the world, and more than a month into the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Since Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7 -- in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 239 taken hostage -- Israel has bombarded Gaza relentlessly and sent in ground troops.

The Palestinian territory's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza, many of them children.

In an interview with the BBC on the fringes of the peace forum on Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron condemend the Hamas attacks but called on Israel to stop bombing civilians in Gaza, saying there was "no justification" and the deaths were causing "resentment".

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.