The Senate Committee on Public Information and Mass Media, in a public hearing on Tuesday, moved to find ways to “stop the spread of fake news,” even as legislators saw no need to enact remedial legislation to tackle the problem raised in the case of controversial blogger Malacañang Assistant Communications Secretary Mocha Uson.
“It is not necessary [to amend existing laws],” said Sen. Grace Poe, who chairs the committee. “We just have to implement the law.”
Most of the resource persons who attended the marathon committee hearing, including veteran journalists, aired similar sentiments.
This, even as Poe admitted that “many things still need to be fixed.” While she asserts that “we have an existing libel law” to deal with the “fake news” problem, Poe indicated the committee would still need to address other issues that arose at the hearing, citing, for instance, the case of bloggers in government payroll.
“Should we allow people in government to do blogs?” she asked, noting that there seems to be “no rule on bloggers.”
Before adjourning Tuesday’s hearing, Poe confirmed plans to invite officials from Google and Facebook at the next hearing, as suggested by Sen. Manny Pacquiao, as well as telephone company giants Smart and Globe.
“The weaponization of social media certainly is a new development that the framers of the Constitution, even the most recent one in 1987, could not have foreseen,” Poe said.
She noted that branding the problem as fake news may not be accurate. “It is misinformation and disinformation, it is disrespect, perhaps. To misinform is to inadvertently share false information; to disinform is to deliberately create and share information known to be false. This is what experts termed as “misinformation and disinformation of our ecosystem.”
“Bloggers, although they have a right to criticize, do not have the right to misinform. Opinions passed off as news are as deadly as lies. All the more if you are a public official,” Poe said. “Public officials, by the nature of their functions, should expect public scrutiny the moment they step into office.”
Poe added: “With fake news threatening our daily realities, I believe that legislative solutions exist…. Media literacy is the best long-term solution but it should not just be the government.”
Wrapping up the second hearing, Poe cited the various options that people aggrieved by fake news, or disinformation, can resort to, without the need for new legislation.
“One solution is education, and a continuing campaign on proper behavior in cyberspace. We are grateful for all the private entities, particularly those coming from the media, that teach the netizens how to distinguish real from false information,” Poe said in her closing statement.
She added Senate probers are also looking at the accountability of those in power to fake news from the source, such as social- media sites. “Maybe we can ask from them more transparency in their procedure for takedown, because ultimately, it’s their platform that dictates what to show or hide on our feeds.”
Apparently alluding to an earlier remark at the hearing by Interaksyon Editor in Chief Roby Alampay about the “world class” competencies of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in fighting cybercrime, Poe said: “It’s also time that we encourage people to use the existing laws and institutions like the NBI Cybercrime Division already in place. With technology, we can fight back abuses in technology.”