Cape Town – The government has put mechanisms in place to enable it to act faster in curbing digital misinformation and fake news for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.
“We are stepping up our campaign against digital misinformation, particularly in relation to Covid-19 and related actions such as the national lockdown,” Acting Minister of Communications Jackson Mthembu said on Wednesday.
“We also need to remind South Africans that spreading fake news or disinformation about Covid-19 is a punishable offence. Arrests have already been made and they will continue if people persist in spreading fake news."
A hi-tech monitoring and evaluation process has been put in place to assess complaints and reports from the media, the public and other sectors of society, with the ability to take down fake news items on a range of platforms and submit cases to the SAPS for investigation and prosecution.with
The solution is the result of a collaboration between the Communications Department, the Government Communication and Information System, Media Monitoring Africa and the CovidComms volunteer communication network.
It forms part of the work of a special ministerial task team established by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, which also includes representatives from Icasa, the Film and Publications Board, ZADna, cellphone companies and other key players in the ICT sector, including platform owners.
Once fake news items or social media posts have been identified, platform owners are notified to bring down the posts.
Electronic communications services licensees, including over-the-top media service providers and internet service providers that are in the service of providing linear and non-linear services, will then have the responsibility to remove fake news from their platforms with immediate effect.
Complaints can be channelled through the Real411 website: www.real411.org, or the WhatsApp line 067 966 4015.