Constitutional Commission Discusses Fake News

Commission on the Constitution of the House of Representatives held on April 10th a discussion over how to regulate false information through internet in possible referendum on constitutional amendment. One of the main talking points was whether the government should regulate exchange of information, which may breach freedom of expression of the people.

While the commission had been talking mainly about how to amend the constitution, when it was led by conservative lawmakers in the Liberal Democratic Party. After the general election last October, those conservative lawmakers, who mainly were affiliated to Abe faction of the LDP, decreased due to the slush fund scandal. Since then, he momentum of constitutional amendment was shrunk.

 

The chairman of the commission, Yukio Edano, the founder of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is willing to continue to discuss constitution, not limited to the method of the amendment. It was not usual for the commission to discuss not about which provision should be amended. Fake information in the election has been regarded as a serious problem to erode the basis of democracy.

 

The talking point was whether official organization of constitutional referendum should check the fact of information uploaded on the internet. In the referendum for constitutional amendment, the Diet establishes Referendum Public Affairs Council, which oversees public affairs after the Diet initiated the referendum. The members of the council are supposed to be the lawmakers of both Houses.

 

Fake news in election was spotlighted in the gubernatorial election of Hyogo Prefecture last November. A lot of defamation or false information was so much exchanged during the campaign that local police considered investigation on malicious ones. Opinion among the people in Hyogo is still sharply divided between pro- or anti-governor groups.

 

In the discussion of the Commission on the Constitution, some lawmakers argued that fact-check exercised by an authority of national government may violate freedom of expression of the people. They proposed to establish a council by the people from private sectors. Concerns against authoritative oversight may lead to control of information by the government.

 

Others were skeptical about capability of private sectors in fact-checking. Some raised a necessity of blocking foreign countries that tries to intervene the referendum for constitutional amendment. There was a proposal of giving the council a power to inform the voters about the obtained information.

 

Fake information in elections is a common issue in the world. The European Union mandates the major platformers to delete false information. The United Kingdom imposes penalty on the person who intensively disseminated false information. Discussion over regulation on false information is not about constitutional referendum, but about every national or local election.

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