Stiffer penalties sought vs fake news purveyors

Fed up with the proliferation of fake news, Sen. Joel Villanueva wants stiffer fines and penalties imposed on individuals who either create or spread fake news.

Villanueva’s Senate Bill 1492 also seeks heavier fines and penalties if the perpetrator of fake news is a public official.

Any person found creating or spreading fake news will face a fine of P100,000 to P5 million and imprisonment of one to five years, the bill said.

The fine and penalty would be doubled if the perpetrator is a public official, who will also be disqualified from holding any public office.

Earlier, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II was chastised for alleging that opposition Senators Paolo Benigno Aquino IV and Antonio Trillanes IV were seen holding a meeting with clan leaders of Marawi City before the Maute terrorists assaulted the city.

Aguirre’s information turned out to be false, as the senators denied the allegation and were supported by some government officials who vouched for their innocence.

Villanueva said public officials should take a high moral ground, instead of becoming tools in spreading false information.

“The effect of fake news should not be taken lightly. It creates impressions and beliefs based on false premises leading to division, misunderstanding and further exacerbating otherwise strenuous relations,” he said.

The bill covers any mass media enterprise or social media platform that fails, neglects or refuses to remove fake news from their sites.

A fine of P10 million to P20 million and imprisonment of 10 to 20 years await any media entity or person found guilty of spreading fake news.

The spread of fake news has become a problem with various social media networks, particularly Facebook, being used as a platform by its perpetrators.

The distribution of these fake news articles usually carry the names, in part, of reputable media outlets to trick its readers into thinking that these are legitimate.

Less discerning readers fail to distinguish these articles as fake and oftentimes end up sharing these with their friends or followers.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) urged the faithful to refrain from patronizing, popularizing and supporting sources of alternative facts or fake news.

CBCP president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas called on the people to rebut and refute falsehood and desist from disseminating fake news either on social media, by word of mouth or any other form of public expression.

“Identify the sources of fake news so our brothers and sisters may be alerted and know which media and sites to shun,” Villegas said.