Posting anti-vaccine propaganda on social media could become a criminal offence – even if those promoting it believe the pseudoscience, the UK\u2019s new criminal Law Commissioner has said.<\/span><\/p>\n In her first interview since taking up the role, Penney Lewis, revealed she is considering whether laws should be amended to \u201clower the threshold\u201d of criminality\u00a0for posting false information online that endangers lives.<\/span><\/p>\n It comes as\u00a0the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in September\u00a0he was \u201clooking very seriously\u201d at making vaccinations compulsory for state school pupils after the UK lost its official measles-free country status due to a steady fall in MMR immunisation rates.<\/span><\/p>\n Currently, people are protected from prosecution if they sincerely believe the misinformation they publish under laws designed more to tackle bomb hoaxes than internet health conspiracies.<\/span><\/p>\n Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Prof. Lewis said current legislation also meant people only faced prosecution for publishing information\u00a0with the purpose of causing \u201cannoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n However, she cited anti-vaccination posts and people advocating cancer patients treat themselves with the apricot extract laetrile instead of chemotherapy as areas where lives could be endangered.<\/span><\/p>\n The former King\u2019s College professor said: \u201cIf their purpose is actually not to [cause annoyance or anxiety], but they think they are doing the right thing by posting false information about a vaccine, for example, it is then should there be a recklessness-based fault element or even a lower (criminal) threshold?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo where they\u2019ve really not done their homework and they\u2019ve been negligent in the way they have spread this false information or disseminated it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think we need to look into whether there is a role (for criminal law) in relation to false health information.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n