Fake news, riding on the power of social media, brought thousands of people to vaccination centers early morning of August 5. They were “convinced” to line up for vaccination by the news that only the vaccinated can claim the ‘ayuda’ (cash aid) from the government, as the unvaccinated will not be allowed to go out of their houses after the ECQ starts.
Throwing health protocols to the wind, thousands of people lined up inches apart, sat shoulder-to-shoulder, all with masks on, some with face shields in many parts of Metro Manila. The safety and health protocols that we have been told to follow for 19 months already were clearly not followed.
Government authorities led by Malacanang quickly branded as fake news the “no bakuna, no ayuda” trending posts in social media. The National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police were immediately requested to find the sources of the fake news and to file charges against them.
Republic Act No. 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, mandates that the NBI and the PNP organize “a cybercrime unit or center manned by special investigators to exclusively handle cases involving violations of this Act.”
Under the NBI, the unit is known as the Cyber Crime Division. Under the PNP, it is known as the Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG). Both agencies monitor fake news.
The PNP has another special unit to address fake news. It is called the Task Force COVID Contra Peke which was created in March, 2020 in coordination with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). The task force monitors COVID-related posts in social media and identifies netizens who are the sources of fake news.
Although these special units have made arrests and filed charges against persons found to be spreading false information, fake news continues to pollute social media and has resulted in many alarming incidents that endanger people’s lives, such as mass gatherings and misinformation on vaccines.
We can cite more fake news items that had caused panic, led to wrong decisions, or inconvenience. But that will just be giving another platform to spread fake news.
One way to kill fake news is not to spread them. The more immediate way is the stricter enforcement of the law on cybercrime.
According to the DICT, “Republic Act No. 11469 Section 6 (F) penalizes those individuals or groups creating, perpetrating, or spreading false information regarding the COVID-19 crisis on social media and other platforms, such as information having no valid or beneficial effect on the population, and are clearly geared to promote chaos, panic, anarchy, fear, or confusion; and those participating in cyber incidents that make use, or take advantage of the current crisis situation to prey on the public through scams, phishing, fraudulent emails, or other similar acts.”