As governments across the world attempt to fight back against "fake news," Malaysia has set a troubling precedent by banning news stories it deems to be "fake" with a new law that imposes a penalty of up to 6 years in prison for violators.

Under the new bill, titled Anti-Fake News 2018, "news, information, data, and reports which is or are wholly or partly false" are now illegal. The penalties do not only apply to the news organizations and websites where these stories originated, but they will also be extended to the average person who might share a story on social media without knowing whether or not it is true.

Initially, the government wanted to impose a 10-year penalty for those who are found guilty of these laws but were met with a massive public outcry, so they slightly lowered the maximum sentence to 6 years.

Malaysia's communications and multimedia minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Salleh Said Keruak said in a recent statement that this law was necessary in order to save democracy: