LDP joins call to curb fake news

KOTA KINABALU: The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has called for a law to curb the spreading of fake news through social media.

Party president Datuk Seri Panglima Teo Chee Kang pointed out that Germany and the Czech Republic have implemented such a law and the French government was also considering doing the same.

“In Germany, the law took effect on January 1st this year and it empowers the government agency to ask that certain postings which appeared on platform providers to be taken down within 24 hours, failing which a 50 million Euro fine will be imposed on those responsible,” he said.

Speaking at the annual Chinese New Year gathering for the media hosted by LDP here yesterday, Teo who is also Special Tasks Minister said, “There are many cases where social media was abused by users.

“Therefore, there is a need to have laws to regulate and to check as well as put a stop to the wide spread of fake news, hate speech and issues pertaining to race and religion in the cyber world.

“As much as we like freedom of speech, there is a need to ensure that it is not abused,” he said.

When met by reporters later, Teo stressed that internet users must have a sense of responsibility.

“When you receive anything through the social media, verify it before forwarding it to your friends and family. Ensure the information is correct, otherwise you are actually being abused by the people behind the fake news.

“You are just being used by them as a tool to spread the fake news for their agenda. So there is a need to do just as what Germany and the Czech Republic have done and what the French Government intends to do.

“I think Malaysia is no exception, especially since we are a multi-racial country, we need to be very careful when addressing the issue of race and religion, hate speech, even cyber bullying,” he emphasised.

“Just as we regulate the conventional media, we should also have laws regulating the digital media as well.

“It is very important to preserve the peace and harmony that we have and also as a protection for the internet and social media users so that they are not victimised by receiving fake news or hate speech through the internet,” he said, warning that if there was no law to regulate the digital media, there would be a lot of victims.