FAKE news is a topic that is constantly highlighted across the globe and the country takes no exception to this nagging issue. Much has been discussed about the scourge in the media, with at least 29 countries – Malaysia included—having endeavoured to enact laws against this global problem. The country’s controversial Anti-Fake News Act, which has been castigated by critics as a tool to clamp down on the freedom of speech, saw the Dewan Negara rejecting its repeal.
The repeal bill will return to the Dewan Rakyat for re-tabling. While we wait for the outcome, the debate on whether Malaysia needs the act or the tweaked version of it and whether the current laws are adequate to arrest and penalise the dissemination of fake news will continue to pop up on our smartphones.
Differences in opinion aside, we all know that dissemination of fake news is nothing new. Since time immemorial, history shows how individuals and organisations have become victims of fitnah (slander). Only now, in the digital era with the rise of social media and instant messaging platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Telegram, fake news is being spread faster and to a larger audience than before. Now that these platforms have become one of our primary sources of information, fake news will certainly continue to proliferate, and be a bane to the administrators of nations around the world, as well as to the man-on-the-street.
Hence, the announcement by Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp yesterday to impose a limit globally on the number of times a user can forward a message to five in its bid to fight misinformation and rumours is a step in the right direction by the social media giant. The move is praiseworthy and deserves applause. It was reported that the measure by WhatsApp, which boasts around 1.5 billion users, was an expansion to what was put in place in India last July after the spread of rumours on social media led to killings and lynching attempts.
In the Malaysian context, such a move by WhatsApp will go a long way in educating and stopping Malaysians from becoming the “bearers” or victims of fake content. A survey has revealed damning data about our society when it concluded that 50 per cent of Malaysians said they had earlier believed a story they had then found out was fake. We have seen and witnessed how lives and businesses have been affected by it. Fake content not only disrupts private lives and organisations but also threatens our country’s peace and harmony that we have worked so hard to achieve.
All it takes is a silly comment from an irresponsible Netizen to ruin everything. Anything can become viral on social media and many people will tend to believe that fake news is true, even when it’s not, due to the many “voices” backing it up. We can only hope that other social media giants follow suit, while governments globally look for a solution. At the end of the day, the onus is on us to verify news shared by others with us. We also need to ask ourselves—do we deserve the technological advances that we have in our hands? If we do, then we must be responsible enough to stop, look and think before we press the forward button.