While “fake news” as a phenomenon is not new, today’s digital media age has made the need to address it considerably more urgent. Its political impact, potential to compromise the integrity of electoral processes, and ability to cause real world harm have driven governments across the globe to take notice. The trend towards legislation as a countermeasure is unmistakable, with many new pieces of regulation targeting the creation, distribution and manipulation of false and harmful information being enacted in the last four years, and many more still being drafted and considered. This note maps and compares the regulatory frameworks for addressing false and/or harmful information in five jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific – Australia, India, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan. Its aim is to demonstrate the diversity of regulatory strategies which have been implemented or are under consideration, and in doing so, act as a discussion starter on governance of the digital space, where the circulation of ideas could better inform the fight against false and harmful information, which spreads not just within but across national borders.

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