China’s Ban of Fake News and Prevention of Information Cascades
China recently enacted legislation to ban deepfakes and fake news published without disclosure of the fact. The government’s official stance is that deepfakes and other forms of fake news can be used to disrupt social order and create political risks. Although China has a rather controversial internet use policy for its citizens, ranging from banning Western sites such as Facebook or implementing facial recognition technology to punish rule-breakers, I believe that this policy is a good one, as misinformation is never a good thing. In fact, this legislation follows California’s legislation banning the exact same thing, and China is even ahead of the United States in terms of passing a nationwide legislation to ban fake news.
In banning fake news and deepfakes, I believe this will be beneficial for preventing false information cascades from occurring. With fake news, it is easy to convince at least a few people of the legitimacy of the news, leading to a small core group of people who can now spread the false information, leading to an information cascade filled with misinformation. Aside from misinforming members of the public, fake news can also act in favor of a group or person acting maliciously in order to misrepresent themselves or another group, which definitely is not a good thing.