Fake News and Covid-19: Malaysian legal perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v9iSI22.5854Keywords:
Fake News, COVID-19, Regulatory, InfodemicAbstract
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by fake news which is as dangerous as the virus itself. Many countries have promulgated laws to combat fake news including Malaysia. This paper considered the criteria for fake news offences and the regulatory measures and non-regulatory measures put in place to counter fake news in Malaysia. Employing a doctrinal methodology, this article analyses the relevant legislations and case laws for offences and punishments with regards to fake news Based on the findings, the paper proposes an amendment in the relevant laws to combat fake news in Malaysia.
References
Ahinkorah, B. O., Ameyaw, E. K., Hagan, J. E., Seidu, A.-A., & Schack, T. (2020). Rising above misinformation or fake news in Africa: Another strategy to control COVID-19 spread. Frontiers in Communication, 5(June), 2018–2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00045 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00045
Daud, M., & Zulhuda, S. (2020). Regulating the spread of false content online in Malaysia: Issues, challenges and the way forward. International Journal of Business and Society, 21(S1), 32–48.
Human Rights Watch. (2021). Malaysia: Revoke ‘Fake News’ Ordinance. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/13/malaysia- revoke-fakenews-ordinance.
Kharel, A. (2018). Doctrinal Legal Research. Available at SSRN 3130525. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3130525
Lim, A., Dollah, W.A.K.W., & Rahman, S.A. (2021). The awareness of fake news phenomenon through information literacy competency in social networking sites (SNS). Journal of Academic Library Management (AcLiM), 1(2), 75-84.
McConville, M., & Wing, H. C. (2012). Introduction and Overview. In M. McConville & H. C. Wing (Eds.), Research Methods for Law (2nd ed., pp. 1–17). Edinburgh University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474404259-004
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.) Fake. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fake
Mian, A., & Khan, S. (2020). Coronavirus: the spread of misinformation. BMC Medicine, 18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01556-3
Mohammad, N. H., Chinnasamy, S., & Zamri, N. A. K. (2022). Fake news and misinformation: Covid-19 & challenges confronted by Malaysia's Ministry of Health. International Journal of Academic Research in Business & Social Sciences, 12(5), 1276-1295. https://doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v12-i5/13010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v12-i5/13010
Our World in Data. (2023). Coronavirus Data Explorer. https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer
Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. (n.d.). Fake. In Oxford Learner's Dictionaries.
Pennycook, G., Mcphetres, J., Zhang, Y., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy nudge intervention. Psychological Science, 31(7), 770–780. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620939054 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620939054
Raja, I. (2020, May 14). Is social media facilitating conspiracy theories about COVID-19? Daily Sabah, 6698, 1–7. https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/is-social-media-facilitating-conspiracy-theories-about-covid-19.
Tasnim, S., Hossain, M. M., & Mazumder, H. (2020). Impact of rumours and misinformation on COVID-19 in social media. Journal of Preventive Medicine & Public Health, 53(3), 171-174. https://doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.20.094 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.20.094
Tee, K. (2021, October 1). Law minister confirms Emergency ended in August but says ordinances still apply until Feb 2022. Malay Mail. https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/10/01/law-minister-confirms-emergency-ended-in-aug-but-says-ordinances-still-appl/2009806
The Malaysian Insight. (2020, February 12). Retired govt worker fined RM5,000 for spreading fake news on Covid-19: The Malaysian Insight. https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/218574.
Thomas, Z. (2020). WHO says fake coronavirus claims causing “infodemic.” BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51497800
Thomazios, C. N., Sohaimi, A. M., Wong, T., & Teh, C. (2021). Laws to tackle the spread of fake news in Malaysia. Legal Network Series, 1(A), 1–42.
Verstraete, M., Bambauer, D. E., Bambauer, J. R., & Rogers, J. E. (2017). Identifying and countering fake news. In Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No 17-15 (Issue 17, pp. 1–34). DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3007971
Wardle, C., & Derakhshan, H. (2017). Information Disorder: Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy Making. In Council of Europe Report (Issue September 2017). https://rm.coe.int/information-disorder-toward-an-interdisciplinary-framework-for-research/168076277c
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Ida Shafinaz Mohamed Kamil, Mohd Dahlan A. Malek
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
