Nobel laureate urges scientists to leverage on people’s trust in them to tackle misinformation

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In Singapore, there have been instances of people circulating fake news online about Covid-19 vaccines. For example, in 2021, Singaporean Cheah Kit Sun published a blog post entitled Do Not Participate In A Society That Rejects You on various platforms. The post, which falsely exaggerated the dangers of the vaccines, was issued correction directions under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma). Consequently, it had to carry correction notices specified by the Pofma Office.

“There is freedom of speech in democracies, but freedom of speech stops when you cause damage to the public,”

example of former doctor Andrew Wakefield, who had published a now widely discredited article linking the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine to autism, Prof Ciechanover said that when preventable deaths occurred because of falsehoods circulated by physicians and scientists, it was “equal to murder”.

For qns on freedom of speech, social media and science....

Qn: ‘In a free society, there should be no restrictions on freedom of speech.’ Discuss. (Cam. 2020)