As governments across the world attempt to fight back against “fake news,” Malaysia has set a troubling precedent by banning news stories it deems to be “fake” with a new law that imposes a penalty of up to 6 years in prison for violators. Under the new bill, titled Anti-Fake News 2018, “news, information, data, and reports which is or are wholly or partly false” are now illegal.
The penalties do not only apply to the news organizations and websites where these stories originated, but they will also be extended to the average person who might share a story on social media without knowing whether or not it is true.
Initially, the government wanted to impose a 10-year penalty for those who are found guilty of these laws but were met with a massive public outcry, so they slightly lowered the maximum sentence to 6 years. Malaysia’s communications and multimedia minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Salleh Said Keruak said in a recent statement that this law was necessary in order to save democracy:
“Over the past few days, since the Government’s Anti-Fake News Bill 2018 was introduced to Malaysia’s parliament, it has attracted a lot of attention and commentary. We welcome discussion, and after listening to a wide array of voices, the Government has made changes to the Bill, including reducing the maximum sentence for convictions under this law to six years in prison.”
“So it is clear that this Government will act when it is necessary to protect the security and freedoms of the people and our democratic process. And there can be no doubt that this fake news law is necessary,” he added. Ironically, Salleh Said Keruak claimed that this strong measure of censorship still allows for citizens to exercise their freedom of speech.
“The definition of fake news in the Bill is clear and specific; freedom of speech as provided for under the Federal Constitution will not be curtailed; and the Government will not itself decide what is fake news, but instead will allow a neutral party, namely the Courts, to decide via independent legal process. As we have seen since a former leader stepped down and judicial independence was recovered, Court decisions now frequently go against the Government and senior ministers,” Salleh Said Keruak said.
The ban comes at the onset of an important general election for the country, and as Salleh Said Keruak pointed out in his lengthy statement, Malaysia is not alone in implementing censorship measures to fight what they consider to be “fake news.”
Various neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, including Singapore and the Philippines, are introducing similar laws.
Meanwhile, some European countries already have these types of laws on the books. Last year in Germany, legislation was passed that legally forces publishers to delete whatever the state deems to be hate speech or misinformation.
Earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron called for emergency legal action to crack down on “fake news” during elections.
In America, the censorship measures are more subtle, with the government putting pressure on companies like Facebook or YouTube to throttle and shadow-ban accounts that make controversial posts. Even without the draconian prison penalties, the basic outcome of media censorship is the same: creating uniformity of thought.
These governments say that they are protecting their citizens from misinformation, but what they are really doing is protecting themselves from competition. As many of these politicians have pointed out, the sea of information available to us on the internet has fundamentally changed the way that governments operate and it has stifled their ability to keep the masses of society bound to a particular worldview.
Now there are millions of different places where people can get their information, each of them offering different viewpoints—some well-researched and legitimate, some downright false, and most somewhere in between.
This has created a situation where people are far less trusting of both politicians and the media, which — contrary to what the state claims — is a very positive thing. However, now we are seeing that politicians around the world are attempting to regain control of the narrative by placing themselves in a position to be arbiters of truth.
According to a 2017 report by the independent research group Freedom House, press freedom in the United States and across the world is at its lowest point in 13 years. The report found that there were “unprecedented threats to journalists and media outlets in major democracies and new moves by authoritarian states to control the media, including beyond their borders.”
I wrote this @ http://thefreethoughtproject.com/governments-worldwide-seek-ban-fake-news-country-threatens-prison/
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
My name is John Vibes and I am an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. I write for numerous alternative media websites, including The Free Thought Project @tftproject and The Mind Unleashed. In addition to my first book, Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance, I have also co-authored three books with Derrick Broze @dbroze : The Conscious Resistance: Reflections on Anarchy and Spirituality, Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion and Manifesto of the Free Humans
I just won a 3-year-long battle with cancer, and will be working to help others through my experience, if you wish to contribute to my medical bills, consider subscribing to my podcast on Patreon.
Bastards want to own the fake news!
Who gets to decide what others may or may not listen to!
This is extremely dangerous to our democracy!
Thanks for the info @johnvibes
The blockchain, along with anonymous accounts are needed more than ever when this starts happening. They won't stop it, and hopefully they are too late to slow it down too much.
yeah i agree, luckily we are building the tools to escape this
This is fucked up, man. The murderous, lying, evil police state attempting to blame the victims.
By the way, what is it on this medium, I've noticed, that people don't really comment on things? Feels like people are chickenshit to say anything.
Just another step closer to completely shutting everyone off to any "alternative news" and effectively eliminating free thinking and any concept of individuality.
A few years ago I would never have thought to see such laws passed around the world. We are on fast track into authoritarianism. The real question is if we can build non-government solutions before we are drawn into the next generations of dictatorships. Currently I think we are technologically on the winning side.
i think we are, we just need to keep out-innovating them
Fake news = news they don't agree with. Am glad America isn't there yet. Then again, MSM is trying so hard to get us to that point
yeah fake news is in the eye of the beholder lol
Must be nice to have a monopoly on the truth.
Damn. This is some micro-managing bullshit. Control creeps with false power. This is why the Freedom Movement and the Freedom Message must reach every corner of the earth.
Natural Rights must be understood.
The attack on peoples Free speech is actually going to be a game changer over time. The truth is a society is only viable if it protects its individuals. When it doesn't protect it's individuals it becomes a mob and is why third world countries have a low standard of living.
This means less graft for the greedy and less ability to function as a criminal cartel. Fraud only works for as long as you can pay for it. We The People need only remain strong in our principals and watch as they destroy themselves.
yup, here in America they have the internet giants doing the censorship, turns out the guy I was talking to yesterday who supports censorship is actually a Google+ censor! he started bragging about how many accounts he deleted, it was surreal.
This all just shows the importance of building decentralised networks like steem to give real news the chance to breathe...
Looking forward to you coming on the Alternative Lifestyle Show on Friday.
Well, that is totally disturbing. What is "fake news" and what is "real news" can, at times, be purely subjective. You're treading dangerous ground when you try to legislate something that can be subjective. It's like the governments of the world are wanting us to only publish and believe what THEY say is real.
Thanks for the valuable news.i appreciate your valuable information.
Carry on my dear @johnvibes
the law and the mandatory law are upheld in each country
Nice post
Curated for #informationwar (by @openparadigm)
Relevance: Threats to Freedom of Speech
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It will get worse before it gets better. The censors have gone full coercive collectivist freak show whacko. Look at what they did to Tommy Robinson, I don't know if you watched his interview with Pettibone, but the (extra)judicial silencing aspect is even more chilling than the in-your-face laws eliminating free speech. At least with the laws people know they are being targeted for what they say, as Robinson's example shows, laws are optional if some nameless faceless horror decides one's speech is undesired.