Making Money by Publishing Fake News is Fraud

Size, Robert

Making Money by Publishing Fake News is Fraud

Size, Robert

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2026

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Size, Robert
dc.date.accessioned	2026-10-02T07:09:27Z
dc.date.available	2026-10-02T07:09:27Z
dc.date.issued	2026
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/196289
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Law.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	Making money by publishing fake news could and should be prosecuted as fraud. Section 192E of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 (UK) and the wire fraud statute (18 USC s 1343) prohibit intentionally obtaining money by making false assertions of fact. The language of each offence is broad enough to capture generating revenue from advertising alongside false news stories. The rationales underlying the criminalisation of fraud support interpreting each offence as encompassing conduct of this kind. And the ‘fake news problem’ requires a solution that attributes responsibility to those most responsible—namely, the publishers. By advancing these arguments, this thesis presents a legal solution to the ‘fake news problem’ that does not require the enactment of new laws, but rather characterises making money by publishing fake news as a new way of breaking existing laws. In doing so, it defends the breadth of the fraud offences in NSW and the UK, critiques limits place upon the wire fraud statute by the Supreme Court of the United States, and provides a more complete account of the potential scope of the fraud offences, and the rationales underlying the criminalisation of fraud, than the existing literature.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en	en_US.UTF-8
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/196289/1/thesis.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2026 Robert Size
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/cph
dc.title	Making Money by Publishing Fake News is Fraud	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

Making money by publishing fake news could and should be prosecuted as fraud. Section 192E of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 (UK) and the wire fraud statute (18 USC s 1343) prohibit intentionally obtaining money by making false assertions of fact. The language of each offence is broad enough to capture generating revenue from advertising alongside false news stories. The rationales underlying the criminalisation of fraud support interpreting each offence as encompassing conduct of this kind. And the ‘fake news problem’ requires a solution that attributes responsibility to those most responsible—namely, the publishers. By advancing these arguments, this thesis presents a legal solution to the ‘fake news problem’ that does not require the enactment of new laws, but rather characterises making money by publishing fake news as a new way of breaking existing laws. In doing so, it defends the breadth of the fraud offences in NSW and the UK, critiques limits place upon the wire fraud statute by the Supreme Court of the United States, and provides a more complete account of the potential scope of the fraud offences, and the rationales underlying the criminalisation of fraud, than the existing literature.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/196289