How Effective is POFMA in Battling Online Falsehoods? SYNOPSIS

How Effective is POFMA in Battling Online Falsehoods? By Benjamin Ang and Xue Zhang SYNOPSIS A study conducted in 2023 found that the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) has been effective in mitigating the risks arising from the spread of online falsehoods, which can undermine social cohesion. [...] For instance, while the UK government relied on the Online Safety Act 2023 to prosecute those involved in spreading falsehoods online during the UK riots, difficulties were faced in proving that the sender knowingly sent a false message, especially in social media cases, where the nuances and context in language can easily change the meaning of a message. [...] In the leadup to POFMA’s fifth anniversary, a team of researchers from the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) at the S. [...] In each of the ten use cases, more than 80 per cent of the respondents responded that they believed in the POFMA clarification rather than the original post. [...] At the same time, the findings show that there is a not insignificant segment of the population that is susceptible to falsehoods.