The spread of false health information casts a shadow over required vaccine coverage. Melinda Mills says that we must, reluctantly, consider criminalising people who deliberately spread false information — but Jonas Sivelä argues that the definitions are too murky and that criminalization may do more harm than good…
Yes — Melinda Mills…
On ethical grounds, deliberate intent to spread malicious vaccine disinformation that could result in preventable deaths should be considered criminal. But criminalization is not straightforward.
Laws against spreading fake news and health disinformation have been passed in France, Germany, Malaysia, Russia, and Singapore…
Proposed alternatives to criminalization include inoculating the public against false information by increasing media literacy…
No — Jonas Sivelä…
Criminalising anti-vaccine misinformation could make it grow even stronger…
Failing to consider or answer people’s worries, and instead suffocating relevant discussion, would only result in an increased lack of confidence in the long run—and an increase in misinformation…
Instead of criminalising communication, other technical solutions for tackling misinformation have proved successful, such as efforts by Facebook and Twitter to deal with false claims through fact checking and labelling misinformation…more