Legal Solutions to Fake News: Preserving Democracy and Press Integrity

This essay examines the issue of fake news and its impact on democratic societies, focusing on legal solutions to mitigate its spread. It explores the challenges posed by fake news, including its effect on public trust and the ability of the press to function effectively. The essay proposes and analyzes various legal strategies, such as amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) to hold social media platforms accountable for disseminating false information, implementing a new distributor liability framework, and revising standards of distributor accountability. The author argues that these legal solutions are crucial for preserving freedom of expression and safeguarding the democratic role of the press. The essay references relevant academic sources and case studies to support its arguments, ultimately advocating for a multi-faceted approach to combatting fake news, with legal solutions playing a vital role.

Running head: FAKE NEWS
FAKE NEWS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

2FAKE NEWS
Fake news is considered as a shared concern intimidating the competence of public to
rely on legitimate press agencies. The research question will focus on ways in which
individuals can safeguard themselves from fake news and 3 ways to solve the problem.
The democratic self-governance theory can be applied by individuals to emphasize on
freedom of expression. Such a strategy of applying self-governance theory will generate
improved outcomes for individuals. Meanwhile, individual autonomy theory can be
considered as effective ways of safeguarding one from getting misled by fake news (Butler,
2018). The individual autonomy theory aims to understand if liberated expressions tend to
create improved consequences. This will help public to articulate their thoughts in a liberated
way for a government exercising regulation on the ones who act in legitimate manner.
However, irrespective of the reason to which right of free expression instigates in support of
both the theoretical understandings, individuals should rely on media to efficiently perform
the roles assigned to them in informing citizenry (Walters, 2018). It will further give rise to a
platform for effective communication between legitimate administration and its self-
governing public.
Increasing number of false news has limited the capability of journalists to play
decisive role in upholding the democracy. Number of strategies has been considered to bring
effective social explanations to the increasing incidence of fake news. Social solutions would
include provision for improved education for citizens in identifying broadcast of fake news
online and prohibition of legal solutions. In addition to this, implementation of adapted
framework of common law distributer obligation particularly aiming to identify fake news to
Internet Service Providers (ISP) as well as websites would successfully identify social media
sites such as Facebook and Instagram to be accountable for disseminating fake information
which can be considered as defamatory. Such a strategy would efficiently lessen the
oversharing and dissemination of false news. Fisch (2018) shared two videos of President

3FAKE NEWS
Trump which appeared to be highly reliable as they contained video from the White House
authorized YouTube channel. “The video shows President Trump greeting a group of people
standing behind his dais; he chats with them as he exits the room. The voice of a small,
disabled boy, Monty, is captured on the video, calling out "Mama," and reaching his hand up
and towards Trump. In the video clip, Trump does not stop to shake the boy's hand or engage
him in any way.” However, the first one contained false clips which portrayed the President
in negative light only be showing single moment from the program which was completely out
of context (Fisch, 2018). Another fake news “The hijacked Twitter account of the Associated
Press in April 2013 falsely claimed that President Obama had been injured, causing a
significant drop in stock prices temporarily Such fake news are typically edited and reposted
by people who typically prefer to conceal their true identity”( Walters, 2018, pp. 146).
First solution for solving problem of fake news would be to apply legal solution by
amending § 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Such a solution would exhibit
great efficiency in addressing the issue of fake news on social media websites. Secondly, the
new distributor liability can also restrict the accountability of the sites in monitoring
grievances to simply postings connecting to available articles in order to circumvent
imposition of a duty to monitor commentaries displayed by individual users (Fischer, 2019).
Lastly, the most effective legal solution for reducing broadcasting of fake news broadcast will
be revised standard of distributor accountability. Such a standard does not implement a
traditional domain of tort law to a novel innovation and expertise. It will not add damaging
accountability for digital firms as majority of websites tend to apply similar regulating
requirements in order to align with the federal copyright regulation.
Hence to conclude, CDA’s insusceptibility has provided a strong and effective
legislative method to decrease the increasing dissemination of fake news and raising the
growth of distinctive online content. It has been noted that CDA plays vital role in

4FAKE NEWS
safeguarding unrestricted discussion on the web by separating unwanted content unlike fake
news.

5FAKE NEWS
References
Butler, A. (2018). Protecting the Democratic Role of the Press: A Legal Solution to Fake
News. Wash. UL Rev., 96, 419.
Fisch, A. (2018). Trump, J.K. Rowling, and Confirmation Bias: An Experiential Lesson in
Fake News. Retrieved 4 February 2020, from
http://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/radicalteacher/article/download/
481/342
Fischer, R. (2019). "The Fake-News Media Has a Big Problem." Retrieved 4 February 2020,
from https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-590652002/the-fake-news-media-has-
a-big-problem
Machray, A. (2017). Fake news threatens the very core of our society. Retrieved 4 February
2020, from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1895351780?accountid=35812
Walters, R. M. (2018). How to Tell a Fake: Fighting Back against Fake News on the Front
Lines of Social Media. Tex. Rev. L. & Pol., 23, 111.
.