Regulation Of Online Falsehoods: ‘Fake News' – The UK, Singapore And Europe

'Fake news' - information or news that is proven to be either verifiably false or misleading - has become a major, global concern.

As news and opinion pieces are increasingly pushed to readers via online and social media channels, the speed their dissemination has accelerated exponentially, as have the challenges around regulating news and opinion.

These challenges, coupled with increasingly polarised electorates, have led to documented instances of manipulation of electoral processes, both here in the UK and in the United States, and to content being linked directly to the incitement of violence in countries such as India and Myanmar.

The demand for tougher regulatory intervention on fake news is compelling, whether such content is used as part of a deliberate attempt to influence people's opinion (political or otherwise) or merely to increase profitability through reader clicks.

As a result, fake news has become a major threat to democracy and political stability and to user confidence in the wider internet eco-system. The rate at which false information can be spread globally is now a major challenge for governments and their regulatory frameworks, and regulators worldwide are scrambling to implement measures to address the problem. However, the size and reach of such online platforms pose a challenge to policymakers and regulators.

What is clear is that we are at the start of a long journey, and regulators will come under increasing pressure from government to move more quickly to address these issues. However, the major challenges lie in resolving the material issues around censorship; the levelling of regulation in an increasingly converged digital world; policing the process fairly; and protecting the regulatory process from unnecessarily political influence by using effective agencies that can secure the trust of all stakeholders in the process.

This article addresses the attempts by three prominent jurisdictions in this space - the United Kingdom (UK), Singapore, and the European Union (EU) - to tackle such issues and provide an outline for what happens next.

United Kingdom

A slew of recent examples have been widely reported in the UK media, underlining the impact how widely fake news or false information has spread, and the impact it has had. One prominent example was around the EU referendum, when online channels were used to serve up targeted, fake information designed specifically to undermine institutions and incite anti-EU sentiments. This was very similar to the allegation against Facebook with respect to its role in spreading fake news during Donald Trump's successful US Presidential campaign.

What is being done?

While UK regulators like Ofcom regulate broadcast media and the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) and Impress regulate newspapers (online and offline), these regulators have not taken any significant action to tackle fake news.

The Cairncross Review Report, 2019 investigated the UK news market and role of digital search engines etc. Amongst other things, it recommended that the online platforms' efforts to improve their users' news experience should be placed under regulatory supervision: the aim being to ensure oversight of the steps online platforms are taking to improve both the quality and the accuracy of the news content they serve. It also recommended that:

Ofcom should explore the market impact of BBC News, and whether it has inappropriately stepped into areas better served by commercial news providers; a new independent institute be created to ensure the future provision of public interest news; a new Innovation Fund...