Call for self-control

THE most anticipated Bill to regulate online space has been presented in Parliament — Online Safety Bill 7/2018. The Bill comes at a time when gendered cyberbullying, online sexual harassment and revenge porn are making the news. It is also when public officials are filing defamation cases, fake accounts on social media are increasing, the mainstream media is not so free, (overseas) journalists are persecuted, fake news is our new reality and citizen journalism appears to be the future. Self-regulation Online spaces, specifically social media, need to be self-regulated by the social media corporations. This is in the interest of freedom of expression and speech and, in my opinion, to prevent governments from using regulations and laws to censor information and speech, and to persecute dissenting voices. Women and children? Violence, misogyny, bullying and invasion of privacy are not part of freedom of speech or expression. We are in an era where these offences (which are mostly criminalised) are manifest online.It is not new criminal behaviour, just the context has changed with far wide reaching implications to cause harm. The impersonal nature of interaction, anonymity and quick accessibility exacerbate the issues. However, online platforms largely remain a microcosm of our communities. So it is these specific acts and behaviour that need to be regulated and criminalised through narrowly and specifically crafted amendments in existing legislations (such as the Crimes Decree) and/or in new legislations. The Bill is described as “an act to establish the online safety commission for the promotion of online safety, deterrence of harmful electronic communication and for related matters”. Much of the provisions in the draft legislation, it would seem, have been adopted from New Zealand. Unfortunately, I believe not much regard has been given to our context to considerably adapt the law to make it relevant and responsive for us.