What are different countries doing to combat fake news?
- showmethereality
- Nov 18, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 4, 2020
In middle of March of 2018, the European Commission has made a report about misinformation. The report said that experts from all over the world have gathered to try and combat the misleading that is happening in the European Union. We are going to show you actions that have been taken in different countries to fight against the spread of fake news.
Singapore
Singapore proposed a law to prevent fake news in April of 2018. Under the law, a person who intentionally generates or disseminates fake news may be fined or even imprisoned. The prison sentence can go up to 10 years. Facebook and Twitter had to make quick modifications in order to adhere to the new law. The failure to comply to these laws can end up in a fine up to 1 million dollars. Individuals can end up with a 20 thousand dollar fine and a year of prison sentence.
Malaysia
According to the law that has been installed in 2017, it is a crime to generate and spread fake news. If someone fails to do so, they can end up with a fine big as 165 thousand dollars and 6 years of jail.
Germany
Germany has passed a law in January of 2017, where they have forced social media companies to remove fake news from their websites. These companies had only 24 hours to this. If not, they could have ended up with 72 million dollar fine.
Russia
In 2018, President Vladimir Putin imposed severe fines on Russian citizens who spread fake news that lead to violations of public order. Individuals can be fined up to $8 000. The authorities will also block websites that do not comply with requests to remove inaccurate information.
Australia
In April of 2019, a campaign called “Stop and Consider” encouraged voters to pay attention to the sources where they are inform themselves from in the light of the federal elections that were going to be held in May in the same year.
Belarus
Belarus has instated controversial modifications to their media laws in June of 2018. These amendments allowed people to be held accountable in court for spreading fake news.
Belgium
Alexander De Croo, the Belgian Minister for the Digital Agenda, announced two initiatives aimed at stopping the fast spread of misinformation in May of 2018. The government established a group of experts that consisted of journalists and scientists in order to find a solution to these problems. The other mean to fix the matter was the creation of a website that informs the population about fake news.
Chile
In February of 2019, the Senate of Chile has put forward a bill that would penalize politicians across the country for spreading, promoting or funding false news.
Denmark
Denmark has set up a working group to deal with the matter. Founded in September 2017, the group is tasked with combating the misleading campaigns that are widespread and foreign disinformation attacks. The government has distributed brochures that gave tips on how to avoid misinformation to the population.
Indonesia
In January 2018, president Joko Widodo appointed the head of the newly formed National Cyber and Encryption Agency to help intelligence agencies and law enforcement to fight against online misinformation and fake news before nationwide regional polls. The agency employs hundreds of people to provide online protection to different institutions. The government has blocked websites which contain malicious information for the society.
The following figure shows the countries that have taken action against online misinformation. The colours indicate how each state has acted against the spread of fake news.
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