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Spread misinformation about COVID-19 online and face six months in prison

Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, yesterday put regulations in place to prevent the escalation of the national state of disaster declared on 15th March.

The regulations lay out a number of limitations which President Cyril Ramaphosa already put into place only in greater detail.

Of interest is the offences and penalties section.

Section 11.5 reads: “Any person who publishes any statement, through any medium, including social media, with the intention to deceive any other person about –

(a) COVID-19;

(b) COVID-19 infection status of any person; or

(c) any measure taken by Government to address COVID-19,

commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding sex months, or both such fine and imprisonment.”

Simply put if you lie about COVID-19, lie about somebody having COVID-19 or lie about the steps government is taking to fight the pandemic, you face prison time, a fine or both.

That goes for online as well so we recommend you be mindful of sharing unverified information relating to COVID-19.

While this seems extreme it’s important to consider how quickly misinformation spreads and how dangerous that can be given the current climate.

You can find the regulations in full here. The regulations include which governmental departments are able to issue directives and the scope of those directives. It’s well worth a read.

[Image – Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM]

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