08 October 2024
The Bombay High Court Dismisses the Ministry of Truth
In 2023, the Indian central government established a Fact Check Unit to monitor online content related to ‘any business of the Central Government’ and order the takedown of any information that it considered ‘fake or false or misleading.’ The FCU itself was envisaged as a public body and a part of the central government. As it seems, the Indian central government wanted to depart from existing liability rules protecting platforms in all cases of online criticism of the Indian State. As the FCU would be the last arbiter of what could be said online in India about the central government, the amendment instituted what could be called a ‘Ministry of Truth’. This was struck down by the Bombay High Court. Continue reading >>
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08 January 2024
Putting X’s Community Notes to the Test
All of the biggest social media platforms have a problem with disinformation. In particular, a flood of false information was found on X, formerly Twitter, following the terrorist attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and the start of the war in Ukraine. The EU Commission therefore recently initiated formal proceedings against X under Art. 66 para. 1 of the Digital Services Act (DSA). One of the subjects of the investigation is whether the platform is taking sufficient action against disinformation. Despite these stakes, X takes an approach different to all other platforms: As can be inferred from the X Transparency Report dated 03.11.2023 posted information is not subject to content moderation, but solely regulated through a new tool: The Community Notes. Continue reading >>20 October 2022
Silenced, Chilled, and Jailed
As Turkey is in the process of getting ready for the general and presidential elections of June 2023, a recent legal reform has created much concern regarding freedom of expression and increased threat of online censorship in the country. Citizens have called the amendment a ‘censorship law’, while some prominent civil society organizations have voiced their concern about the law creating avenues for a dystopian crackdown when the elections are just around the corner. Continue reading >>
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20 October 2022
Fake News, Wahrheitspflicht, Lüge
Die Befürworter von Mediengesetzen mit harten Sanktionen begründen deren Notwendigkeit damit, dass sich Desinformation zu einer „ernsthaften Bedrohung“ für den Zugang zu „wahren“ Informationen entwickelt und die Bekämpfung einer solchen „Bedrohung“ notwendig sei, um Grundrechte und Grundfreiheiten zu schützen. Die damit zusammenhängenden konstitutionellen Probleme werden dabei, unabhängig von der Schwere der Sanktionen, stark unterschätzt. Continue reading >>
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25 May 2022
Schlechte Umfragewerte für Chiles Verfassung
Die Verfassunggebende Versammlung in Chile befindet sich im Endspurt, bevor am 5. Juli 2022 der endgültige Vorschlag veröffentlicht werden muss. Doch die letzten Umfragen großer Meinungsforschungsinstitute zeigen seit einigen Wochen eine knappe Mehrheit, die gegen die neue Verfassung stimmen möchte. Das könnte vor allem an der gescheiterten Kommunikation der Verfassunggebenden Versammlung liegen. Continue reading >>
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12 May 2022
The War in Ukraine, Fake News, and the Digital Epistemic Divide
The ongoing war in Ukraine sheds light on crucial challenges of our digital media landscape. The social media-driven “(mis)information wars” surrounding the Russian invasion expose a growing epistemic divide running through liberal democracies. The regulatory focus on truth, with measures like fact-checking, serves little to cure the larger problems behind this. We should rather use the power of the law to devise new modes of intelligent speech regulation mimicking the functions formerly played by the centralized set-up of communication conditions. Continue reading >>
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16 November 2021
In Singapore’s war on fake news, the Constitution is not an obstacle
Singapore’s highest court has decided the first case under the city state’s controversial Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act. The whopping 154-page judgment finds key elements of the Act constitutional and establishes a test to determine the lawfulness of governmental correction notices. It also illustrates how the government’s insistence on factual accuracy pushes the courts to almost absurdly meticulous assessments, while being barred from asking the most significant questions. Continue reading >>
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07 September 2021
Fake-Strafrecht in Wahlkampfzeiten
Genügen die Aufklärung durch Staat und Medien, um den Gefahren zu begegnen, die gerade in Wahlkampfzeiten von Falschinformationen ausgehen? Der Umgang mit Fakes ist in der digitalisierten Gesellschaft eine große Herausforderung. Das Strafrecht erscheint jedoch kaum als geeignetes Instrument, um einer Beeinflussung des Wählerwillens entgegenzuwirken. Der Gesetzgeber sollte vor allem keine Fake-Strafgesetze schaffen, die vorspiegeln, etwas zur Bekämpfung reeller Probleme beizutragen, obwohl sie dies nicht leisten können. Continue reading >>07 May 2021
Soziale Netzwerke in der Grundrechts-Klemme?
Seit 2018 häufen sich Klagen, mit denen sich Nutzer dagegen wehren, dass ihre Beiträge auf sozialen Netzwerken wie Facebook gelöscht werden. Gegenteilig will die Grünen-Politikerin Renate Künast nun vor der Richterbank Facebook dazu zwingen, konsequent(er) gegen Falschmeldungen vorzugehen. Netzwerkbetreiber drohen so in eine Klemme zwischen Meinungsfreiheit und Persönlichkeitsschutz zu geraten. Continue reading >>
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13 April 2021
The rebirth of Malaysia’s fake news law – and what the NetzDG has to do with it
On 11 March 2021, the Government of Malaysia issued the Emergency (Essential Powers) (No. 2) Ordinance 2021. It criminalizes the dissemination of fake news related to COVID-19 and is an aggravated reincarnation of the country’s repealed Anti-Fake News Act of 2018. More importantly, from a German perspective, it continues the trend of anti-fake news legislation that is mistakenly associated with the German Network Enforcement Act, which has become the involuntary godmother of several such laws around the world, lending legitimacy to the global war on fake news. Continue reading >>
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