U.N. Communications Official Touts Google Search Partnership: ‘We Own the Science’

Brittany Bernstein
·2 min read
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The United Nations’ under-secretary-general for global communications said last week that the U.N. has partnered with several big tech companies to combat disinformation on Covid-19 and climate change because “we own the science and we think that the world should know it.”

Under-secretary-general Melissa Fleming made the comments last week while speaking on a panel on disinformation during the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Sustainable Development Impact Meetings.

“We partnered with Google,” Fleming said. “For example, if you Google ‘climate change,’ you will, at the top of your search, you will get all kinds of U.N. resources.”

She said the partnership began when U.N. officials were “shocked to see that when we Googled ‘climate change,’ we were getting incredibly distorted information right at the top.”

“We’re becoming much more proactive. We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do,” she added.

Fleming went on to discuss the organization’s efforts to combat disinformation on TikTok.

“We had another trusted messenger project, which was called ‘Team Halo’ where we trained scientists around the world and some doctors on TikTok, and we had TikTok working with us,” she said.

Fleming added that the U.N. worked with influencers to spread their messages, believing that many social media users would find influencers more trustworthy than if the information came directly from the U.N.

“Another really key strategy we had was to deploy influencers,” she said, adding, “influencers who were really keen, who have huge followings, but really keen to help carry messages that were going to serve their communities, and they were much more trusted than the United Nations telling them something from New York City headquarters.”

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