The Film and Publications Board has scrapped recently introduced regulations that would have forced South African Internet service providers and social media platform owners to police their content for disinformation and misinformation or face criminal penalties.in the national government gazette on 26 April 2024, signed by the FPB’s acting chief executive officer , Ephraim Tlhako, on 11 April 2024.
The notice prescribed heavy criminal penalties for distributing disinformation and misinformation, with fines of up to R150,000 and two years imprisonment. In addition, they maintained that the FPB had no mandate to regulate misinformation and disinformation, and that it was effectively trying to enact new legislation without following proper Parliamentary procedure or the required public consultation processes.that the FPB was effectively declaring that mis- and disinformation were forms of propaganda for war, incitement of imminent violence, and hate speech.