{"id":29776,"date":"2018-01-16T08:56:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T13:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=29776"},"modified":"2018-01-16T08:56:14","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T13:56:14","slug":"can-fake-news-be-outlawed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=29776","title":{"rendered":"Can Fake News Be Outlawed?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Macron<\/picture>PHILIPPE WOJAZER\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Can Fake News Be Outlawed?<\/a><\/h3>\n
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French President Emmanuel Macron used the occasion of an annual New Year’s press conference this year to propose a new law to prevent the spread of disinformation online. But even if France’s restrictions work as intended, fake news is a global problem, and it will require a global solution.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n
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PARIS \u2013 How can societies combat the stream of false, often fabricated information that surges across the Internet and through social media, polluting political debates almost everywhere?<\/p>\n

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That question has bedeviled defenders of democracy at least since the 2016 US presidential election. And at a New Year\u2019s press conference outside the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace this month, French President Emmanuel Macron offered his own answer.<\/p>\n

Macron\u2019s goal, it seems, is to curtail \u201cfake news\u201d by law. He is promising that, by the end of the year, he will introduce a bill to crack down on those spreading misinformation during any election period.<\/p>\n

But France already has a repressive law banning the publication or broadcasting of disinformation in bad faith. Under Article 27 of the famous Press Law of 1881<\/a>, disseminating false information \u201cby whatever means\u201d is punishable by a fine of up to \u20ac45,000 ($55,000) in today\u2019s currency.<\/p>\n

The Press Law, however, applies only to information that has \u201cdisturbed the public peace,\u201d which can be very difficult to define, let alone prove. Another law, part of the electoral code, provides for punishment of one year in prison and a fine of \u20ac15,000 for anyone who uses false information \u201cor other fraudulent maneuvers\u201d to steal votes. But this provision applies primarily to cases of electoral fraud.<\/p>\n

Macron\u2019s challenge, then, is to craft legislation for the digital age. Although he didn\u2019t explicitly say so in his recent speech, he is clearly targeting the kind of Russian interference that played a prominent role in the 2016 US presidential election, and also threatened his own presidential campaign last spring.<\/p>\n