There are calls to crack down on the sharing of misinformation online. But would this be an attack on free speech?
Mis- and disinformation — false information, shared intentionally or by mistake — has been labelled the top global risk right now by the World Economic Forum.
Social media isn’t making the issue any better.
Creator and host of the podcast Uncomfortable Conversations Josh Szeps said: “We are a civilisation that has suddenly been given a nuclear weapon of information in the form of social media and that’s about to have artificial intelligence dolloped onto it — like pouring gasoline on fire.”
A vocal advocate for free speech, he’s concerned the sharing of ideas online could be misinterpreted as sharing misinformation.
“The reality is, if you’re going to live in a big, diverse, pluralistic, multi-ethnic society ... you’re going to have to wrestle with a bunch of ideas that some cohort of that society is going to find offensive or insulting," he told SBS Examines.
"And some of that will border on misinformation and disinformation.”
Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay said in order to move forward, misinformation and disinformation need to be properly defined.
“We need to both protect people from false information, but also make sure we’re protecting freedom of speech at the same time,” she said.
This episode of SBS Examines asks: Can we fight misinformation without restricting free speech?
