A case study on fake news as a new form of crime or harm in the modern world.

Abstract

The concept of fake news has been around for many years, dating back centuries. However, it must be argued that the emergence of the world wide web and recent ascendancy of social media have facilitated an explosion of fake news due to the ease of communication becoming a tool for the spread of misinformation. This article will provide a clear argument for online fake news being considered as a “new” site of online communication that generates social harms. To achieve this, there is a dedicated focus on (a) the apparent popularity of conspiracy theories, (b) how the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to be a watershed moment for understanding the potential impacts of fake news, and (c) the utility of moral panic analysis for making criminological sense of these recent developments.