A House Tri Committee member admitted that they have yet to provide a working definition of ‘fake news’ during the continuation of their investigation on the proliferation of disinformation on the internet.
Former Palace Press Officer, Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles, one of the resource persons invited by the House, asked Antipolo Second District Representative Romeo Acop if their committee already provided an exact definition of fake news.
Cruz-Angeles said that one of the challenges of the legislators was to come up with the exact definition of fake news.
“Rep. Ace Barbers proposes regulation, a regulatory framework for social media to combat fake news, and therefore, we have to define what fake news is,” said Cruz-Angeles.
“Wala pa akong nababasang proposal because the proposed bill regarding fake news will come out after this hearing,” Acop responded.
However, Cruz-Angeles expressed confusion as they were already being asked about fake news despite the Tri-Committee’s lack of definition of fake news.
“If we can have a working definition of what you call fake news, for instance, clickbait is fake news, fake ‘yung headline pero nasa body naman ‘yung katotohanan. What about sarcasm sir, kasama po ba siya sa fake news? Paano kung jokes, fake news din po ba ‘yon?” she asked.
Cruz-Angeles proposed that Tri-Comm should also start discussing the possible definition of fake news.