TAKING note of the intensifying degree of mudslinging against candidates online, the Senate Standing Committee on Interior has urged the government, in particular the PTA and the FIA, to crack down on such antisocial and defamatory behaviour. Some of their suggestions are naïve at best, and unreasonable at worst. Only a month ago, another Senate body was informed that the FIA’s cybercrime investigation unit is too understaffed and ill-equipped to deal with most complaints. Given the vast, distributed nature of the internet, even a well-resourced investigative body would not be able to intervene as swiftly as it seems the legislators would like to bring such miscreants to book. One view floated in the meeting was that the time had come for ‘stringent measures’ to be implemented to check the proliferation of such content; one can only surmise that this would entail a prohibitive approach. Authorities have flirted with this idea before; then, as now, blanket bans on social media platforms are not only draconian but also demonstrably unwieldy.

It is understandable for politicians to want to shield themselves from vitriol, but the fact is that many of them are responsible for cheapening our political discourse. Only recently, the ECP issued notices to four senior politicians for using unbecoming language against their opponents. Online abuse, often perpetrated under the cloak of anonymity, might up the ante, but it is still in large part a reflection of the divisive rhetoric being expressed in the mainstream. Perhaps this election season might engender some empathy among our politicians for the many victims (particularly women) of online abuse, who don’t have the privilege of being able to legislate to improve digital rights or strengthen the FIA’s capacity to hold abusers accountable. Meanwhile, the prescription our politicians are looking for is hidden in plain sight — the ability to self-regulate, tone down the invective, display moral leadership, and reassert our basic, common values of dignity for all.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2018