A/HRC/44/49 in conflict with the requirements of necessity and proportionality under article 19 (3). 55 Legislation to impose such prohibitions has been proliferating in countries including Ethiopia, France, Italy, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.56 50. Numerous countries have pre-existing “false information” laws, the principal intention or effect of which is to restrict criticism of government or the reporting of news not favoured by government or officials. The example of Malaysia raises a concern despite the State’s repeal of its 2018 Anti-Fake News Act (No. 803). The Act had made it an offence for anyone to knowingly and maliciously create, offer, publish, print, distribute, circulate or disseminate any fake news or publication containing fake news (art. 4, para. 1). The law made the offence punishable with significant fines, imprisonment or both. After a change in government, however, opposition to the legislation had a significant effect: a bill to repeal the Act was passed in December 2019.57 Nonetheless, the Government of Malaysia now appears to be relying on its regular penal code to charge individuals with circulating false information about COVID-19.58 Similarly, there is growing concern that Singapore, which in 2019 enacted a law prohibiting deliberate “online falsehoods”, will use its new authority to address pandemic information.59 2. Internet search and social media 51. Private search engine and social media companies are justifiably under significant pressure to ensure that they do not enable potentially harmful public health disinformation to circulate on their platforms. Several have already taken aggressive steps to address misinformation about the COVID-19 virus. Many have developed approaches to ensure that, whenever a person searches for information related to the disease, an early search result includes verified information from a public health authority. Others are reinforcing their existing policies, for instance by removing content that may “discourage people from seeking medical treatment or claim that harmful substances have health benefits”.60 Twitter is expanding its definition of “harm” to include “content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information”. 61 One analyst found that platforms were taking “an unusually aggressive approach in removing misinformation and other exploitative content and boosting trusted content”, like information from WHO. 62 At the same time, public health measures such as social distancing have led companies to drastically reduce their content moderation workforce, leading to an increase in the use of tools of automation – and the admission of likely mistakes.63 52. As has been evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, social media and search engine companies have an enormous impact on public discourse and the rights of individuals on and off their platforms. There is potential for mistakes, particularly in the context of the emphasis on tools of automation, that could cause significant public health 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 Research paper 1/2019 of the Special Rapporteur, pp. 9–10. See the end of mission statement issued by the Special Rapporteur on his visit to Ethiopia, available at www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25402&LangID=E; and FRA 5/2018, ITA 1/2018, MYS 1/2018, MYS 6/2018, PAK 13/2015, RUS 4/2019 and GBR 4/2015. “Finally, Dewan Negara approves repeal of Anti-Fake News Act“, The Star, 19 December 2019. Article 19: International Centre against Censorship, “Malaysia: Stop using repressive laws to counter misinformation about coronavirus“, 24 March 2020. For background, see SGP 3/2019, and the letter dated 5 July 2019 from the Permanent Representative of the Singapore to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva addressed to the Special Rapporteur. Available from https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments. YouTube Help, “Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) updates”, FAQ: How is YouTube fighting misinformation around coronavirus (COVID-19)? Available at https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9777243?hl=en (accessed 6 April 2020). Vijaya Gadde and Matt Derella, “An update on our continuity strategy during COVID-19“, Twitter, 16 March 2020. Evelyn Douek, “COVID-19 and social media content moderation“, Lawfare, 25 March 2020. Facebook, “Keeping our platform safe with remote and reduced content review“, 19 March 2020. 15