AUGUSTA — Maine’s Democratic Senate president believes the state needs to do more to combat the spread of misinformation on the Internet.
Senate President Troy Jackson filed a bill on Thursday that he said would do just that. Jackson’s office said the proposal would “require ‘fake news’ websites to publicly disclose who runs and funds the project in a clear manner on the website’s homepage.”
Maine and other states have seen a surge in websites that appear to be newspapers or other traditional news outlets but are actually used by political operatives to spread misinformation and confuse readers, Jackson said.
He said Maine people deserve to know who is funding and operating the websites.
It wasn’t clear who would be responsible for determining what constitutes a “fake news website” under the proposal.
The bill language is still being written, a spokesman for Jackson said.
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