In the current Covid-19 pandemic, the world was caught on both fronts. Third World countries will eventually be hard hit. Viral misinformation and fake news pose the biggest risk for the spread of the coronavirus in South Africa. If not attended to, fake news and misinformation will lead to tens of thousands of deaths. A solid strategy regarding the socio-political and economic discourse around the coronavirus – particularly the paucity of the normative framework to deal with fake news and misinformation – is sorely needed.
We have regulations that prohibit deliberately spreading fake news about the virus. The legislative machinery has been slow to react to the spread of misinformation and fake news – even before the coronavirus outbreak, no specific law or regulation existed to prohibit this spread. We had to rely on general laws of defamation, and laws against insults and hate speech to combat misinformation and fake news.
Therefore, the public must be advised to simply stay away from publishing, forwarding or creating fake news and misinformation about the coronavirus, and that includes even being careful of reckless jokes disseminated within their social groups. The government is bestowed with the sole responsibility of disseminating or ordering the dissemination of credible information about the virus. Elsewhere, fake news peddlers have been subjected to very tough punishment.
In the People’s Republic of China, “Whoever fabricates false information on [a] dangerous situation, epidemic situation, disaster situation or alert situation and disseminates such information via information network or any other media, or intentionally disseminates above information while clearly knowing that it is fabricated, thereby seriously disturbing public order, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance; if the consequences are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years.”
The Malaysian Anti-Fake News Act 803 of 2018, subsequently repealed five months after its passage on 2 April 2019, provided harsher punishment. It allowed for “a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand ringgit [about $122,702] or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six years or to both, and in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit [$736] for every day during which the offence continues after conviction”.
Further, “the deluge of conflicting information, misinformation and manipulated information on social media should be recognised as a global public-health threat”. This is a warning that is shared by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Misinformation and fake news can be disastrous for Tanzania , a country with a healthcare system that over years has been struggling to better itself. In a world of always-on news and ‘fake news’, fear spreads faster than any pathogen, sparking policy reactions, sharp changes in customer behaviour and deep anxieties among staff.
We have been warned: STOP misinformation and the dissemination of fake news about Covid-19.
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