this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
67 points (98.6% liked)

World News

34527 readers
847 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

[This change] would also make candidates in elections liable to criminal prosecution for making any false statement to win votes.

While I think this is amazing and should be the standard everywhere, it's also quite hard to prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt in this sort of scenario. It just means politicians need to maintain some amount of plausible deniability.

As much as I'd like to see corrupt politicians in jail, I have to wonder if somehow making it a civil offence rather than criminal wouldn't be better, since it would only require proof on the balance of probabilities, rather than the higher standards of beyond reasonable doubt.

At least the criminal liability seems to also be on top of code of conduct violations which could lead to retractions or a suspension.