Drawing on a year-long consultation process with civil society, journalists, human rights defenders, electoral officials, and social media companies, Khan identified three intersecting trends that are accelerating the crisis.
A top United Nations expert has issued a stark warning about growing threats to democratic elections and freedom of expression worldwide, calling it a “perfect storm” fuelled by disinformation, digital manipulation, and attacks on the media.
At the 59th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, presented a landmark report examining the mounting vulnerabilities facing electoral processes in the digital age. Her conclusion: the foundational rights to vote and to express oneself freely are being simultaneously undermined—and in some cases, actively dismantled.
“I have written this report on freedom of expression and elections because I’m deeply concerned that there is a perfect storm that is destroying both our right to vote and our freedom of expression at the same time,” Khan said.
Disinformation, Authoritarianism, and a Weakening Media
Drawing on a year-long consultation process with civil society, journalists, human rights defenders, electoral officials, and social media companies, Khan identified three intersecting trends that are accelerating the crisis.
First, she highlighted the toxic political environment driven by authoritarian tendencies and democratic backsliding. “Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Khan said. “When it is suppressed, electoral processes are endangered and public trust in elections suffers.”
Second, she pointed to the flood of disinformation and hate speech that increasingly dominates social media platforms, much of it facilitated by algorithms and amplified by digital tools.
Third, she emphasized the decline of traditional news media, which are both financially weakened and often targeted by political actors, rendering them less able to fact-check or debunk falsehoods.
“Election integrity and information integrity are closely connected,” Khan said. “Safe, free and fair elections require healthy, open information spaces in which accurate and independent information is easily accessible to the electorate.”
Digital Manipulation and the Role of AI
The report underscores how digital platforms and technologies are being exploited by both authoritarian regimes and populist politicians to manipulate information and restrict opposition voices. While manipulation of media and criminalization of dissent are not new tactics, Khan noted that the rise of influencers and artificial intelligence has added new, dangerous dimensions.
“Unlike journalists, influencers are not bound by professional standards,” she said. “Influencers may also be susceptible to coercion by political candidates.” AI tools, she warned, are being used to generate deepfakes and distort narratives, potentially with devastating consequences for democratic discourse.
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk echoed these concerns. In his vision statement Human Rights: A Path for Solutions, Türk described elections as “a litmus test of civic space and effective governance,” emphasizing that “States and societies cannot afford to fail this test.”
Dehumanizing Rhetoric and Exclusion
Khan’s report also raised alarms about the widespread use of dehumanizing rhetoric in political discourse, which targets individuals on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion, gender, language, and sexual orientation. Such hate speech, she said, is not limited to authoritarian regimes—it is growing even in liberal democracies, further polarizing societies and silencing marginalized voices.
She stressed that undermining free expression in the name of fighting disinformation is ultimately self-defeating. “Freedom of expression is vital to healthy democratic discourse,” she said. While restrictions on information manipulation may be necessary, they must be legal, proportionate, and in line with international human rights standards.
Recommendations for Action
Khan’s report lays out a comprehensive set of recommendations aimed at governments, political actors, and technology platforms.
To governments, she urged an immediate halt to internet shutdowns and arbitrary blocking of online content during elections, calling such measures “inherently disproportionate.” She also advocated for the decriminalization of libel and cyber-libel, and renewed public investment in independent, public-interest media.
To political parties, Khan recommended adopting and enforcing codes of conduct, with full transparency about their collaborations with influencers and digital campaigners.
To social media companies, she issued a call to develop and enforce consistent global election standards. Platforms must conduct robust human rights impact assessments of their content policies in electoral periods and ensure alignment with international legal standards.
“Platforms should conduct heightened human rights due diligence and impact assessments of content moderation and curation policies ahead of elections,” she said.
Finally, Khan emphasized the importance of multi-stakeholder, human rights-based strategies to combat disinformation. “Experience has shown that multifaceted, multi-stakeholder strategies grounded in human rights and combining a range of legal and non-legal measures are the most effective way to fight disinformation and other forms of information manipulation,” she said.
Without swift and coordinated action, she warned, both freedom of expression and the legitimacy of electoral processes could suffer irreversible harm.
“Unless all these factors are urgently addressed, the right to expression, as well as the right to vote, will be damaged deeply,” Khan concluded.
