The UNESCO is a specialized agency of the United Nations. The acronym stands for “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization”.

The World Jewish Congress is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1936, which, according to its own mission statement, defines its own purpose as: “to foster the unity and represent the interests of the Jewish people, and to ensure the continuity and development of its religious, spiritual, cultural, and social heritage”. It is an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations.

The EU Commission is part of the executive of the European Union. It operates as a cabinet government with 27 members and a President.

All three, together with Twitter on August 17th, 2020, announced a collaborative effort to launch efforts to counter COVID-19 conspiracy theories spreading across social media.

From the WJC press release:

NEW YORK – The World Jewish Congress is joining the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in launching a series of accessible, comprehensive visual learning resources to raise awareness of the existence and consequences of conspiracy theories linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. The resources address how to recognize conspiracy theories, understand what drives them, refute them with facts, and respond effectively to those who are spreading them. #ThinkBeforeSharing is a partnership among UNESCO, the WJC, Twitter, and the European Commission.

This WJC press release linked to another statement made by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. This UNESCO statement has since been removed from their website at the URL provided in the WJC release. We found a copy of it on archive.ph. The downloaded copy of the UNESCO release is available here.

This statement featured a passage stating:

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay underlined the dangers of misinformation and rumours in relation to the pandemic and other issues. “Conspiracy theories cause real harm to people, to their health, and also to their physical safety. They amplify and legitimize misconceptions about the pandemic, and reinforce stereotypes which can fuel violence and violent extremist ideologies,” she said.

There is still a Youtube video available online from a channel called EUdebates.tv / @EUdebatesLIVE which has the announced launch of these assets in video format. It’s unclear what this channel’s relationship is with any involved party or who the individual is who is announcing the availability of the assets, but the video is below.

Some examples of the use of the #ThinkBeforeYouShare hashtag and the content that is included alongside it, posted by the UNESCO’s X account is featured below. Not all of them were related to covid-19.

The press release featured links to both the UNESCO’s MILCLICK’s Social Media page (on their own domain), and the EU Commission’s own website, with what is described as infographics related to this push to counter covid-19 conspiracy theories. Their website now reports 404 errors for both domains and the content is no longer available. We did not find cached versions on archive.ph either.

https://en.unesco.org/milclicks
https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response-0/fighting-disinformation_en

The direct link to the zip file containing infographics and other social media related assets is:

https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/mil_infographics_covid19_factsvsopinionseries_en.zip

The content this link points to has been removed but we did find a copy on thewaybackmachine from july 16th 2020 and october 17, 2020. Both zip files feature the very same image assets and appear to have a creation date of april 2, 2020. Far in advance of August 17, 2020. These images are featured below.

There were also larger infographic images found online in use and archived on the EU commission’s website.

Those images are featured below, and are likely the social media assets that are no longer hosted on the UNESCO’s website.

A PDF containing additional resources has also since been taken offline.

The original direct link was:

https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/unesco_social_media_posts_on_disinformation_during_covid19.pdf

In one Youtube video asset still available online, the UNESCO specifically stated:

During the COVID-19 outbreak, only trust official information sources and credible media outlets.

Presumably official information sources means government agencies or related entities. Comments on this youtube video were disabled. The video follows.

In yet another video they said that some of the “false [conspiracy] theories”:

• Ignore science
• Claim the virus is part of a secret plot
• Claim it was made in a lab to harm people
• Claim COVID-19 was created to allow certain groups to benefit financially

They specifically say that claims stating any of the above “are not only false,” but “they’re harmful”.

The comments section of this video were also disabled.

The EU commission also featured similar language on its own website when outlining how to spot COVID-19 conspiracy theories online:

Screenshot taken from: https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/coronavirus-response/fighting-disinformation/identifying-conspiracy-theories_en