Government preparing a plan to deal with fake coronavirus news peddlers

The interministerial task team appointed to deal with the country’s coronavirus outbreak will, in the coming days, release regulations aimed at dealing with a number of issues related to the country’s current state of disaster as declared by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday.

This is according to the spokesperson of the ministry of justice and constitutional development, Chrispin Phiri.

Speaking to The Citizen, Phiri stated that the regulations would outline what recourse government had when dealing with those who participated in the spread of coronavirus misinformation, among other things.

Phiri added that this was over and above the powers currently granted to government by the Disaster Management Act of 2002 as outlined in section 27 (2). While the current version of the act has no provisions for misinformation, it grants government powers that may be exercised only to the extent that certain actions are necessary for the purpose of assisting and protecting the public, providing relief to the public, protecting property, preventing or combating disruption and dealing with the destructive and other effects of disaster.

Since the first reported case of coronavirus in the country, the department of health and other government stakeholders have implored citizens to avoid spreading misinformation in an effort to avoid creating a state of panic. However, as more cases are confirmed on an almost daily basis, facts surrounding the pandemic in the country and the disease itself become potentially more unclear.

Misinformation and fake news are umbrella terms used to refer to a type of journalism called yellow journalism or propaganda based on deliberate disinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media.

‘Yellow journalism’ is an American term for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate well-researched news. Such publications employ the use of exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism to draw interest to their articles in an effort to sell as much as they possibly can.

In the age of clickbait and fastest-fingers-first, however, legitimate South African publications run the risk of falling into this category.

Fake Twitter accounts masquerading as the publication have sprung up all over Twitter to share false Covid-19-related headlines. The channel later had to issue a statement regarding these accounts, in addition to sharing guidelines with Twitter users on what to look out for with fake accounts.

“In order to spot fake accounts, eNCA advises social media followers to check who is else tweeting on the subject at hand, inspect the timeline and search for related tweets,” said the channel.

Under the current legal regime, the spread of misinformation is not a crime, nor is it regulated in any way.

This is, in part, due to a decision by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to table a new version of South Africa’s Cyber Crimes Bill in the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services in 2018 – a version that did not infringe on freedom of expression. Under the revised version, the peddling of fake news was no longer criminalised, as it had been in the previous version of the draft law.

In section 17(2)(d) of the previous version of the bill which sought to criminalise the spreading of fake news, it defined it as “the sending or resending of any message that is inherently false in nature and … aimed at causing mental, psychological, physical or economic harm”.

According to Lisa Emma-Iwuoha of Michalsons Practical Legal Solutions, the previous version of the bill would have helped government during a time like this because “the crime created in the previous version of the Cyber Crimes Bill would properly address fake news in these circumstances. It would deal with not just the publication or creation of the fake news but also the spread of the fake news.”

Citing the definition of fake news as defined by the bill, Emma-Iwuoha added that spreading false information in a time of crisis like this would likely meet the requirements of what fake news is as per the bill’s definition.

She noted that existing law could still provide some recourse when the contents of the misinformation being spread met the requirements of defamation or crimen injuria.

How to make sure you are not sharing fake news:

1. Do a Google search for the message you have received or headline you have seen; if no one else is running the story, chances are that it is fake.
2. Always look at the URL of a website or the social media handle of the account posting the news/message.
3. Make use of online tools such as www.whois.com/whois to verify websites as well as the individuals behind them or Media Monitoring Africa’s KnowNews app to check the credibility of a South African website. Africa Check has also published a number of guidelines for verifying claims made in articles, WhatsApp messages and on other social media platforms.
4. Know the signs of a hoax. Information contained in hoax messages or propaganda is usually formatted in a way that elicits strong emotional response from the user; it is also usually accompanied by shocking pictures, video or audio.
5. With regards to WhatsApp messages, some messages are attributed to official organisations or persons. If you cannot Google search the organisation or person, it is best to treat the contents of the message with caution.

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