SAHRC: National hearing on racism and social media

The Department of Justice, the National Prosecuting Authority, Facebook, academics, civil society organisations such as the Freedom of Expression Institute, FW de Klerk Foundation, and Afriforum, as well as journalists presented their thoughts on the increasing incidences of online racism which have plagued the country.

A former Constitutional Court judge, Justice Albie Sachs, and two commissioners of the SAHRC presided over the occasion and will present a report of their findings in due course.

The reason for the hearing was clear - increasingly and most unfortunately the SAHRC is receiving complaints of racism and discrimination, citing the location of the incidences as “social media”.

During the 2015/2016 financial year, the SAHRC received 505 race-related complaints, which is a staggering amount over 20 years after our first democratic election.  As Justice Sachs pointed out: “Social media is capable of destroying the values we want to achieve as a society.”

Hate speech has not yet been criminalised and the Bill dealing with this issue is controversial.  Hopefully the SAHRC report will provide some guidance on what society can do to deal with the issue.

As Justice Sachs said though “... there is no silver bullet...” – this issue is, unfortunately, going to be faced by South Africans in all spheres of society for years to come.

Verlie Oosthuizen

Shepstone & Wylie Social Media Law Department