Fianna Fail‘s James Lawless, has proposed legislation that would make it an offence to actively promote “Fake News” on social media.
The draft law will require that promoters of such ads will have to display a transparency notice stating their aim and target audience.
He told the Indo: “We should not be naive in thinking Ireland will not be affected by the new form of “hybrid information warfare” which is underway on social media.” And that “Evidence suggests that an army of fake social media accounts is being amassed to disrupt the democratic process in the future”
The Kildare North TD, who’s FB profile can be found here, also said that he has reports from “journalists and prominent public figures” who have highlighted an increase in the number of “suspicious accounts” now following them online!
Ready To Strike
He also suggested that these “dormant accounts will spring into action” just like in America and England during their recent election and referendum that didn’t go the way they liked. The law he proposed defines a social network as any website that gets more than 10,000 monthly visitors.
A breach of the law would then result in a fine of €500 or six months in jail, with the penalty increasing to €10,000 and/or up to five years in prison if the banter gets a little too much for a government crony to handle.
You’d almost image that they were so out of their depth and were finally being called on their own fake promises that they were getting nervous!!
I wonder how RTE will be affected…
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