Recent research by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research, the national Dutch “Think Tank” on social and cultural affairs, shows that a majority of the Dutch wants that the national or EU authorities take measures against fake news on the internet. There should come rules stating what is not allowed and if necessary the freedom of expression should be limited. I’ll spare you the details, but in short this is what the majority of the people here in the Netherlands thinks and I assume that not only in the Netherlands but also in other countries that theoretically stand for the freedom of expression most people think so. Is it a good idea?
I think that there are good reasons to be worried about the fake news and disinformation on the internet. They can really cause much damage and be really threatening for some persons. Indeed, some so-called fake news is clearly false. Last week yet there was an internet message that the French schools would start the new year on the 18th of September to come, while in fact it started last week, the 4th of September. Or persons are threatened because false information has been spread about them. In other cases, people are offended by disinformation about them on the internet. These are clear cases that, moreover (the second and third case), hit persons directly. I think that nobody will be against stopping such clearly false information and protecting people against threats and insults in the way as always has been done. Nevertheless, generally I think that it is not a good idea to prevent and stop information on the internet that is considered fake or false, for generally it is not as clear as that. How often doesn’t it happen that what first is seen as fake later is judged to be true. For example, in the 13th century saying that the earth revolves around the sun was considered fake “news”. You could even be sentenced to the stake for saying so. At least in Europe this could happen. In the 17th century, however, there were already many people who believed the statement to be true, although in some countries it was still dangerous to say so (see what happened to Galileo). Now in the 21st century the statement is common sense. Nevertheless, people in the 13th century had good reasons to think that it’s not the earth that revolves around the sun, but that’s the other way round, for the Bible, then the highest authority in Europe, said so. This shows that what fake news is, is not only an objective fact but also a social affair and depends on what is known at a certain moment. As for the latter, in the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic the Dutch National Health Institute said that wearing a face mask was not necessary (unlike what was said in many other countries or what the World Health Organization said), but later it changed its mind. It shows again that it is not easy to say what is true and right.
Establishing what is really true and right doesn’t come by itself. And as we have seen so often, if not too often, we can better not leave it to the authorities to tell us what to believe. If we would have done so, maybe we still would have to think that the sun revolves around the earth, or that the earth is flat. In case authorities establish what is right and true, it will happen too often that what is said to be fact in reality is fake. Moreover, too often such “false facts” are used for manipulation, if not they are constructed to that end. Then the defenders of the “facts” are not different from the producers of fake news and disinformation today. To prevent such an undesirable situation there is only one effective measure: freedom of information and expression. Only crystal-clear cases like those mentioned above should be stopped (but rather afterwards than beforehand; in fact, stopping them beforehand without censorship will hardly be possible). However, we must be careful to do so. Only if persons are explicitly in danger or are hurt, it should be done. Yes, it will make that there’ll remain much fake news and disinformation on the internet. But isn’t a growing repression of free information and of the freedom of expression worse, since this will be done more and more in the name of combatting fake news and disinformation?
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