By Sean Lin / Staff reporterThe comparison and testing of systems is required in legislative efforts to curb the spread of fake news, French Ambassador-at-large for Human Rights Francois Croquette said yesterday, as he underlined the importance of synergy between the government, media, civic groups and major Internet companies in the fight against disinformation. However, that initial hope has in the past few years evaporated as authoritarian regimes and non-governmental actors have attempted to undermine democratic values and freedoms through the spread of disinformation and breaches of Internet users’ privacy, he said. Disinformation is a global problem and has been used in France to instigate violent protests and to influence elections, as evidenced by attacks against French President Emmanuel Macron following the theft of data ahead of the 2017 French presidential election, he added. Another example is when people abuse their freedom of speech and spread “hate speech” — for example, by denying the Holocaust or other historical crimes, he added. When France in 2013 passed legislation to legalize same-sex unions amid great controversy, some French-speaking Canadians had anticipated that in five years public sentiment on the issue would be very different, he said.

Source: Taipei Times January 31, 2019 15:56 UTC