The war on fake news online and the slow progress of Facebook and Google have led some countries to turn to the legal system for a solution.
Notably, various groups in Singapore are awaiting government report on potential Fake News Laws. The recommended new legislation would provide the government with “powers to swiftly disrupt the spread and influence of online falsehoods” and to prevent people from gaining monetary value for misleading clickbait articles. It calls for criminal penalties for those who meet a threshold of “serious harm such as election interference, public disorder, and the erosion of trust in public institutions.”
But fighting misinformation with the law is tricky as concerns have been raised over free speech and censorship if these laws were to take place. However, the counter-argument is that these measures will be to ensure freedom of speech can be meaningfully exercised that is not drowned out by fake content.
In fact, not only have discussions emerged in Singapore but earlier this year Malaysia successfully passed fake news laws. This encompassed penalizing not only those behind fake news but also anyone who maliciously spreads this material. This faced huge international criticism due to the controversial debate of freedom of speech and those guilty faced up to six years in prison and fines of up to $130,000. Currently, the new Government is working to repeal the law.
Nevertheless, if fake news legislation becomes a universal reality, it should still be accompanied with increased fact-checking and investigative journalism and building the digital literacy and critical thinking skills of the population.
How do you rate Fake News Laws as a solution? Do you think having legislation on fake news is an effective solution? Or do you think the sacrifice of freedom of speech is too great of a consequence?
Head to our Facebook poll on our FlakeOnFake page to vote!
Cecilia
FlakeOnFake 
Didn’t know the law was involved, I’d think it be pretty hard for the law to be effective as fake news disseminates way too fast.
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I think introducing laws would be a good thing, but thatd be hard since fake news isn’t that easy to define. Like a lot of people think fake news is something they disagree with. There was an article that said some schools are looking at having classes to help kids tell whats fake news and whats not
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