The Executive Yuan on Wednesday released a video to explain proposed legislative amendments aimed at curbing the spread of disinformation. The purpose of the video was to address confusion and concern over the proposed amendments that were similar to reactions following proposals to fight “fake news” in Europe and elsewhere.
The biggest problem with such regulations is that terms such as “disinformation” and “misinformation” can never be objectively defined, giving those in power great leeway to enforce the rules in a way that suppresses dissenting opinions, which are fundamental to a democracy.
Such laws can never effectively accomplish what they intend to achieve. The nature of the Internet is such that posts can come from anywhere and forums for expression are innumerable.
Even the Executive Yuan’s suggestion that media platform operators be responsible for managing the content users post would be ineffective, as this is a reactionary measure and the “damage” would already be done before any action is taken, while blocked users can create new accounts — something China has tasked a whole government department to do.
The Guardian quoted Italian-Spanish professor of law Alberto Alemanno as saying that trying to fight “fake news” with legislation is “likely to end up being irrelevant, or even to exacerbate the root causes of the fake news phenomenon.” It would be much more effective to tackle the “underlying, structural reasons why [fake news] is so pervasive in our society and media environment,” Alemanno said.
One approach is to hold the media to higher standards, but there is a limit to what the government can require of the media in a democracy.
Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said that the government and the media are “partners,” but traditional and social media should actually provide checks and balances on government power, scrutinizing and possibly exposing politicians and policies. Arguably, the government should put fewer restrictions on free speech, not more.
Laws prohibit political polls from being published within 10 days before elections, with breaches carrying fines of up to NT$5 million (US$161,985) and prison time. Legislators have also proposed a fact-checking agency to flag or remove posts deemed “harmful,” but once a post is up, any harm that it could do has already been done. A reposted, fact-checked story might not even be seen by the same readers. The public would also question who had done the fact-checking.
“People don’t necessarily believe mainstream media and political elites,” Lisa-Maria Neudert of the Oxford Internet Institute told the Guardian.
What harm can “fake news” and so-called “disinformation” do? A well-known example of fake news leading to physical harm is “Pizzagate,” in which a man fired upon people in a Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington in December 2016 after a tabloid published a story claiming that former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton was running a pedophile ring out of it. However, this isolated and outlandish incident could hardly be used as justification for new legislation.
Disinformation is said to have its biggest effect on sentiment at the ballot box. That might be the case for socially divisive issues, but the main factor is whether voters are equipped to discern the quality of information they see.
Canada has run campaigns since the 1990s to teach children to question the media, such as House Hippo and Media Monkey commercials. Rather than legislation, which could impede free speech, the government should encourage the public to be critical consumers of information.
A Chinese diplomat’s violent threat against Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi following her remarks on defending Taiwan marks a dangerous escalation in East Asian tensions, revealing Beijing’s growing intolerance for dissent and the fragility of regional diplomacy. Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian (薛劍) on Saturday posted a chilling message on X: “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off,” in reference to Takaichi’s remark to Japanese lawmakers that an attack on Taiwan could threaten Japan’s survival. The post, which was later deleted, was not an isolated outburst. Xue has also amplified other incendiary messages, including one suggesting
Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian (薛劍) on Saturday last week shared a news article on social media about Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan, adding that “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off.” The previous day in the Japanese House of Representatives, Takaichi said that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute “a situation threatening Japan’s survival,” a reference to a legal legal term introduced in 2015 that allows the prime minister to deploy the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The violent nature of Xue’s comments is notable in that it came from a diplomat,
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