The ManicaPost
EDITOR — The period before, during and after the harmonised elections of July 30, 2018 was marred by abuse of social media and proliferation of fake news spread with reckless abandon on all social media platforms.
The messages had the potential to set Zimbabwe ablaze as seen on August 1, 2018 and this was despite the fact that the President-elect Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa had continually emphasised on the need for free, fair and peaceful elections.
On August 1, 2018, a day after the much marvelled peaceful elections, the world witnessed the ugly nature of abusing social media to incite violence.
MDC Alliance leaders, through social media, spread false and fake news declaring themselves as winners of the harmonised elections even though the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had not yet announced half of the election results.
The MDC Alliance leaders urged its people to convene at their party Headquarters to celebrate their self-imposed victory, a situation that led to chaos in the city centre and destruction of property and unnecessary loss of life.
The propagation of fake news such as “Job Sikhala abducted and possible murdered” and fake pictures of Kenyan people being beaten up and passed-off as Zimbabwean citizens; and burnt houses misconstrued as acts of political violence in an obviously peaceful electoral environment, should be propagated at one’s peril. Obviously, people think that because they use social media with pseudonyms they are protected by being faceless.
People should be warned that though there has been a delay in the enactment of the Cyber Crime and Cyber Security Bill into Law, with the new dispensation and the bottlenecks removed, one should mind what they pass on social media as fact.
The Bill once enacted into law, seeks to criminalise certain illegal content in line with regional and international best practices.
The reality of the effects of social media is so grave that if left unattended it can do more harm than good.
People have taken advantaged of its uncapped nature and have abused social media causing serious damage to property and life.
The world watched and witnessed the destruction and fall of nations due to social media abuse, and Zimbabwe is enroute to protect its citizens, country wealth and infrastructure from the evil of social media abuse in line with such countries as China, Saudi Arabia and Russia that have chosen to protect their culture, country, people and peace through regulation of social media networks.
The Bill once made into law will provide for and consolidate cyber related offences with regard to the declaration of rights under the constitution and public and natural interest to establish a cyber-centre and to provide for its functions, provide for investigation and collections of evidence of cyber-crime to provide for admissibility of electronic evidence for such offences.
Needless to say, however, those perpetrators of violence through social media once caught in the act either by video or audio can be brought before the courts of law to answer for their crimes.
Cyber-crime law in Zimbabwe is provided for mainly in Chapter VIII of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23).
Cyber-crime also covers such offences as child pornography, cyber fraud and even human trafficking.
Cases of card cloning in Zimbabwe have hit the shops and food outlets hard and more people are at risk being defrauded of their hard earned cash.
Also children are being exposed to illicit material on social media, an indication that there is need for social media regulation.
Citizen journalism aided by social media has also taken away the issue of media ethics by not censoring their online publications and or taking the time to verify their issues before printing.
Some media houses have been forced to retract stories published based on unverified facts on Twitter. Social media as a source of news has proven to be unreliable.
Prosperity Mzila
