Joint statement by Canada, United States and United Kingdom on foreign information manipulation

February 16, 2024 – Ottawa, Ontario – Global Affairs Canada

The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada remain deeply concerned about foreign information manipulation and other actions designed to undermine our democracies and human rights globally.

Foreign information manipulation is a national security threat that undermines democratic values, human rights, governmental processes and political stability. Given the borderless nature of information manipulation, we call on all like-minded countries committed to the rules-based order to work together to identify and counter this threat. Securing the integrity of the global information ecosystem is central to popular confidence in governance institutions and processes, trust in elected leaders and the preservation of democracy.

The present international system, based on international law and respect for territorial boundaries, is competing with an alternate vision defined by autocratic impunity. This alternate vision deploys foreign malign influence aimed at undermining our safety and security with disregard for universal human rights and the rule of law.

The time is now for a collective approach to the foreign information manipulation threat that builds a coalition of like-minded countries committed to strengthening resilience and response to information manipulation. We can do this through coordinated, whole-of-society solutions that work with experts, independent media and multilateral organizations to address these transnational security threats.

That is why, today, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada jointly endorse the Framework to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation, which affirms our shared understanding of the threat and offers a holistic view of how to address the foreign information manipulation challenge. It aims to standardize our approach to this problem and build interoperable and complementary systems to resist this threat as technologies continue to emerge and adapt. The framework complements the high-level international commitments from the Global Declaration on Information Integrity Online and reinforces our joint efforts and commitment to protect and promote information integrity.

The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada intend to collaborate on building partner countries’ resilience to foreign information manipulation by advancing the framework’s key action areas: National Strategies and Policies; Governance Structures and Institutions; Capacity; Civil Society, Independent Media and Academia; and Multilateral Engagement.

The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada intend to jointly work on operationalizing relevant key action areas through new and existing multilateral mechanisms, such as the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism, and in coordination with other like-minded partners and multilateral organizations.