Punish ‘fake news’ purveyors—Jinggoy

SENATOR Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, has filed a bill this month seeking to criminalize the act of spreading ‘fake news’ or false or misleading “news,” especially on social media by amending relevant provisions of RA 10175 or the ‘Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.’

“Click baits, propaganda, and manipulation of legitimate news segments to deliberately (spread) online falsehoods, false news or disinformation are so common nowadays, making it difficult to distinguish which is actual news to fake ones. This has become prevalent,” Jinggoy said.

In introducing Senate Bill No. 1296, the senator said the legislative measure hopes to put to stop the proliferation of disinformation and misinformation on the internet by criminalizing fake news as a “cybercrime.”

Jinggoy proposed an amendment to Section 3 of RA 10175, to include “fake news” in the definition of terms and its inclusion in Section 4 on the list of cybercrime offenses.

According to the bill, “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.”

As an offense, Estrada’s bill said the “creation and dissemination of fake news committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future.”

Jinggoy also noted that even opinion surveys showed that the majority of Filipinos already find it difficult to spot fake news on television, radio, and social media.

Jinggoy was specifically referring to a survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) in December 2021 but was released only last February 2022.

In the SWS survey, it showed that 70 percent, or or seven out of 10 adult Filipinos said that the problem of fake news and its spread on the internet is serious.