Yeah that's occurred to me.
But if something isn't done to combat the massive (intentional) lies being spread online then democracy as we know it is dead and so are human rights.
People are being bombarded with bullshit on all sides. Truth matters less and less as time goes on.
The right to say something that isn't true in a private context is pretty fundamental. Wiping that out entirely would dramatically alter society. Hell, basically every child and adult would become a criminal overnight.
It also engages a lot of issues that crop up in defamation except now instead of talking about money you're talking about liberty. What do you do when the truth is ambiguous but the intent to lie is clear? What controls the exercise of this power if an unscrupulous (read: conservative) government gets elected? What kind of people/organizations would still feel sufficiently indemnified against the possibility of criminal sanctions when levying criticism? What would happen to satire?
There are plenty of good reasons that the criminalization of speech is done very sparingly. If you overstep even a little bit, the consequences tend to be quite harsh.
