Oral Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2021

Regulating health information - free speech and public health, can we have both? (#123)

Hayley Jones 1
  1. McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

False and misleading health information is not a new problem, but the Internet and social media platforms have amplified the reach of this information. This can have negative implications for the uptake of vital public health interventions (such as large-scale vaccination programmes) and individual treatment choices. Many countries are examining ways to regulate misinformation without disrupting individual rights to free speech. This presentation will look at some international and domestic law reform proposals, as well as the Victorian Health Complaints framework which now explicitly prohibits false claims about cancer treatments and cures.