Legal Measures to Deal With Fake News

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to investigate the legal measures taken to deal with the dissemination of fake news that are currently major concern, and to analyze guidelines for taking legal measures against the dissemination of fake news in the future. This research was a qualitative research. The samples of this research were 102 key informants consisted of     policy level executives involved anti-fake news, related agency personnel, entrepreneurs, operators, persons who were affected by fake news, and legal experts. The data were collected from analyzing the documents, in-depth interviews, and participation and non-participation observations. The results of the research were 1) The current legal measures taken against the dissemination of fake news are: Thailand’s Computer-Related Crime Act, B.E. 2560, a criminal code that contains provisions for defamation offenses, Criminal Code for Petty Offenses, and the Civil and Commercial Code of Infringement;  2) Guidelines for taking legal measures to deal with fake news in the future are as follows: to improve the law on broadcasting and television businesses; to supervise the contents of the operators; to revoke the license of journalists who publish fake news; to amend the electoral law in cases where people who create or spread fake news are disqualified from political office; to enact a law to regulate platform technology providers, technology companies, and social media providers to take responsibility for controlling the spread of fake news and removing illegal news content from the system and blocking illegal content on the system within 24 hours; to regulate the platform operators to disclose details of advertisements found to be fraudulent or providing illegal content; and to enact a law which promotes integrated management of fake news with multi-stakeholder engagement.