Spreading misinformation on the Internet can get you in jail. There is a new bill on the table

Justice Minister Mária Kolíková has come up with a bill that can get you behind bars for lies and fabricated (fear-raising) reports. The Minister of Justice wants to fight the fabrications of the Internet in this way. The report was brought by the Aktuality.sk portal.

For lies and conspiracies in the bass!

The amount of misinformation on the Internet probably exceeded the bounds of decency, so the Minister of Justice decided to act. Anyone who spreads misleading reports will be able to be sentenced to one to five years in prison. This is how a paragraph defines it:

“Whoever produces or disseminates false information which is liable to cause serious concern to at least part of the population of a place, endangers the lives or health of people or influences the population in its decision on serious issues of national importance, or commits any other similar action verbally or in writing, by electronic means; communication service, sound recording, audio-visual recording or other recording, shall be punishable by a term of imprisonment of one to five years. “ it is written in the bill.

So it’s not a lie, it’s just an alarming and frightening message that could potentially hurt. The law also defines the form of such a report: it can take the form of a text, video or audio recording or other, unspecified form.

These are also serious topics that could influence people’s decisions on serious issues (eg vaccinations). Probably the news that the Earth is flat or some other, unsubstantiated information that is not harmful will not be the cause of criminal proceedings.

During a crisis situation, the punishment will be even higher

The same applies, even if it is a large-scale damage. In such a case, a sentence of four to ten years in prison will be possible.

This bill is something based on the government’s program statement. However, so far it is only a proposal, so we have to wait to see if it goes through the approval process. Alternatively, or will not undergo any additional adjustment.