Social network users should be held responsible for reporting inappropriate content. Managing Partner Bazul Ashhab shares more in The Business Times

Published On: February 5, 20180.9 min read

Oon & Bazul’s Managing Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution, Bazul Ashhab, shares his thoughts on The Business Times article, “Stopping the lies, half-

The article was first published in The Business Times on 5 February 2018.

Stopping the lies, half-truths and smears

Monday, 5 February, 2018

THIS WEEK’s TOPIC: Should Singapore introduce a law to deal with online falsehoods? How else could we stem the scourge of fake news?”

Bazul Ashhab Managing Partner Oon & Bazul LLP

Over 80 per cent of Singaporean news consumers are concerned about fake news, the highest among five countries surveyed by BBC Global News recently.

Given our racial and religious profile and the threat of fake news to our social fabric, the concern by Singaporeans is understandable.

Ideally there should be some form of international law that governs fake news, given the global natures of news dissemination these days, but that will take a long time.

In the interim, Singapore must introduce a law that will allow the government to correct or remove fake news. This must also include holding social network users responsible for reporting inappropriate content.