Given these examples highlighted by the Law Ministry, tackling falsehoods has become a high priority for it. A year after the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods’ hearings took place, the ministry has now introduced the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill, to “protect society against damage from online falsehoods created by malicious actors”.
SINGAPORE (Apr 8): People are more likely to share a false rumour than a fact, according to a study by the Ministry of Law. In a survey of 2,500 people in Singapore, the ministry found that a false article run by a small news outlet would reach as many people as correct versions run by 10 major newspapers. What is more, people tend not to see a correction to a false story that is published later.
The spread of so-called fake news has had dire consequences. Between 2017 and last year, child abduction rumours led to killings in India; in Myanmar in 2014, a false rape claim from a Buddhist woman against two Muslim men that was published on Facebook led to two people being killed, with dozens of others injured and mosques burned.
