Laws on fake news may be used vs. activists, journalists, professors warn

Professors teaching media communications and journalism on Tuesday warned that passing laws on fake news might be used arbitrarily against critics and curtail freedom of expression.

At a hearing of a joint congressional inquiry on the proliferation of fake news, Prof. Jonathan Ong said government regulation on social media content could bring more harm than good. Ong is a professor of global digital media at the University of Massachusetts.

“I just wanted to highlight research from other neighboring countries about the risks of top-down government legislation against fake news," Ong said.

"It’s important to recognize that many human rights organizations and international legal scholars have raised alarm about the global trend of anti-fake news laws being used as weaponized lawfare,” he added.

Prof. Rachel Khan said the Anti-Fake News Act of Malaysia and the Protection from Online Falsehood and Online and Manipulation Act of Singapore were an obstruction of civil liberties and media freedom.

She said the two laws' definitions of disinformation were ambiguous, adding that even news on legitimate issues such as corruption and public complaints could be covered.

"So, it's really against freedom of expression,” Khan said.

Khan said there was "a need to balance the need to combat fake news with protecting fundamental rights is a complex challenge that requires extensive evaluation and flexibility and adjustment."

"This is not a black and white na issue. Kailangan po, the bottom line is still the protection of freedom of expression, freedom of the press, especially the right of the people to information,” Khan said.

Khan, however, said that the Philippines could take a cue from Singapore's provision on media and information literacy involving various stakeholders, including governments, technology companies, civil society organizations, and the academe in developing and implementing strategies to educate the public.

“Our current media literacy courses in Grades 11 and 12 are only for one quarter. So that is not enough. It's not enough considering that media literacy is now as important as reading and writing and arithmetic," Khan said.

"We should teach media literacy as early as Grade 1,” she added, saying this had been the case in Finland and Taiwan.

Khan said the masterminds behind the peddling of falsehoods should be held accountable since they funded the disinformation machine.

“There has to be a way to penalize the masterminds rather than yung individual trolls kasi wala ho tayong mararating kung maghahabol tayo ng individuals rather than ‘yung nag-hire sa kanila or yung nagbabayad sa kanila,” Khan said.

Ong said legislation aimed at countering falsehood has four types:

• laws that provide for imprisonment for individuals spreading fake news, media organizations that  publish false information, and social media companies and their executives who do not remove content deemed illegal from their platforms;
• laws that specify fines or other monetary penalties, targeting individuals, company executives, media  organizations, or social media platforms;
• laws that provide for content controls or forced corrections, which entail publishers, social media platforms, internet service, providers, or users to remove the offending content or provide a mandatory correction; and
• laws that specified new administrative requirements, such as transparency requirements, media licensing regimes, data localization practices, or mandated press councils.

Ong said many experts have pointed out that laws versus fake news could be used inconsistently and arbitrarily "often used by incumbent politicians and governments to target activists, critics, journalists, and opposition parties."

"Top-down regulation can actually do more harm than good,” Ong said.

Ong said top-down government regulation could result in rubber-stamping local overregulation, embolden authoritarian regulators, and incentivize platforms to comply with illegitimate government requests.

Given these risks, Ong said that anti-falsehood and fake news should be led by various civil society organizations to prevent overreach.

“Kailangan po talagang suportahan at pondohan ang mga journalists, newsrooms, human rights agencies, and independent research centers for a civil society-driven technology and democracy space sa ating bansa. Hindi lang sapat na gayahin kung anu-anong methodology ang galing sa ibang bansa,” Ong said.

He also proposed legislation mandating big tech companies "to implement content corrections, or number two, administrative compliance measures for participating in transparency mechanisms with independent researchers." –NB, GMA Integrated News