Quote:
Originally Posted by Yamer
Am I missing something, or do slander and libel already still exist?
You want to battle misinformation within any semblance of reality and concept of freedom of expression? Make advanced critical thinking and media literacy cores of fundamental education going forward.
|
Slander and Libel laws are specific to defamation of a specific person. I do not believe that they can cover someone lying about vaccines and saying that it is better to get measles instead of getting vaccinated against measles.
Misinformation laws in Canada seem to be specific to if you have intent to injure or harm someone through false information... I am not sure it has enough teeth to really push back on misinformation. Also, if you try to use the False Information law against Facebook, they would probably just say that they are not accountable for the content posted by their users and then throw an army at lawyers at the case to make it go away.
Modernizing the laws and building appropriate corporate regulations for these online media companies would go a long way to reducing the spread of misinformation. While they are at it, they may as well start building regulations for AI to dunk on misinformation and promote validated information.