Solons seek amendments to cybercrime law, criminalization of creating, spreading fake news

Creating and spreading fake news may soon be penalized. INQUIRER.net stock images

MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers from the House of Representatives want to criminalize the act of creating and disseminating fake news, noting that many Filipinos have fallen prey to wrong information being spread online.

If House Bill No. 2971, filed by Malabon Rep. Josephine Veronique Lacson-Noel and An Waray party-list Rep. Florencio Noel last August 2 and released to the media on Monday is enacted, Republic Act No. 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act would be amended to include the creation of fake news as one of the content-related offenses under Section 4.

Meanwhile, Section 3 of the said law would define fake news.

“Fake news refers to misinformation and disinformation of stories, facts, and news which is presented as a fact, the veracity of which cannot be confirmed, with the purpose of distorting [the] truth and misleading its audience,” Section 1 of House Bill No. 2971 stated.

“The creation and dissemination of fake news as defined in Section 3 hereof, committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future,” it added.

In the bill’s explanatory note, Lacson-Noel explained that they came up with the bill after noticing that not even mainstream and legitimate media outlets were spared from fake news.

“It cannot be stressed that nowadays, people have been repeatedly misinformed about what they consider to be data and facts through the advent of ‘fake news,'” Lacson-Noel said.

“Not even credible sources like media outlets were spared of the false information spread out by paid trolls to distort truth and deliberately mislead people to think the opposite of what is actually happening,” she added.

Observers have claimed that the 2022 national elections were badly affected by the prevalence of fake news on social media, with several candidates lamenting its effect on the populace.

One of the often victims of fake news, former Vice President Leni Robredo, who ran for president in the 2022 polls, vowed to address the issue by launching a movement against disinformation after her term ended last June 30.

READ: Comelec goes after spreaders of ‘fake news’

A fact-checker said last February that Robredo was the biggest victim of fake news, while then-candidate and now President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. benefitted the most from misleading posts.

Even after the election results had been filed, there were still disinformation campaigns targeting Robredo.

Lacson-Noel believes that misinformation must not go unpenalized.

“Both misinformation and disinformation must not go unpunished, especially since it poisons the minds of our citizens by distorting the truth,” she added.

EDV/abc