Alias Elizabeth had a horrible day when she woke up to the sight of her nude pictures all over all the WhatsApp groups she belonged to.
The pictures were real but she wondered why the person she trusted so much had leaked them to the public.
She was in an intimate sexual relationship with a married man, Joe. They were fond of taking each other’s nude pictures and keeping in their phones.
They also exchanged pictures of this nature when away from each other for reasons best known to them.
While out drinking, he had sent a message to Elizabeth requesting for her nude pictures.
Things went sour when Joe’s wife found the pictures in his phone. He came home very drunk and not in the right state of wisdom to delete his secret messages and pictures from his phone.
The pictures of her and others of them together landed in the wrong hands. Out of anger, Joe’s wife sent the pictures to his contacts, friends, relations and social media groups.
This was the worst day for Elizabeth and Joe as their passionate relationship turned into a horrible, hurtful experience overnight.
The leakage of the pictures completely changed people’s attitude towards Joe and Elizabeth. The issue destroyed the reputations they had built over time.
They are just some of the people who have been victims of the wrong usage of social media.
In addition to having such nude pictures circulated, such people also become victims of social media bullying as everyone wants to present their opinion.
In relation to that, people have reached the extent of cooking up defamatory information about others. Such information also manages to circulate through the same platforms.
It appears people have the guts to publicly defame others and get away with it. The information is either forwarded from one person to the other or is written on Facebook using a ‘chigoba’ (anonymous) account.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Malawi Chapter Chairperson Thom Khanje says social media is a good tool that can facilitate development and strengthen democracy if used responsibly.
“Abusing it will attract increased regulation that will limit how much we can use it. Let’s use it positively,” he advises.
Khanje observes that social media has opened publishing to any person other than trained journalists, noting that this has also come with its own challenges as some people are using it for sinister things other than a platform for sharing information.
“We have seen people publishing false things about other people. Others go to the extent of using pseudonyms to avoid being taken to task over what they publish. So, while the social media makes a good tool for facilitating freedom of expression and citizen journalism, there are many people who are abusing and giving it a bad name,” he says.
He adds that the circulation of nude pictures is a classic example of how social media is being abused.
“Women have been the main victims of this social ill that is destroying personalities, relationships, marriages, families and even careers of innocent people,” Khanje says.
He stresses that journalists have a duty of educating people about the social media and how best they can conduct themselves on these platforms to derive benefits rather than attract attacks.
“The media should also inform the citizenry about their rights and obligations online as well as what remedy they can seek when abused. Most importantly, journalists should avoid taking part in the abuse of innocent people through publication of unverified information and unpalatable images sourced from the social media. We are professionals and are supposed to conduct ourselves ethically all the time to protect our field,” he says.
Information communication technology (ICT) experts strongly condemn the misuse of social media, highlighting that people can no longer get away with this as the laws will catch up with them.
Former president of ICT Association of Malawi, Maxwell Phiri, says even though people can use the social media to advance their agendas, they can easily be traced and face the law.
“In most cases their intention is to hurt others or cause public disorder. Even the angry wives that circulate nude photos of their husband’s mistresses could be charged if the victims filed an official complaint,” he says.
Phiri discloses that law enforcing agents have been empowered through the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act which Parliament passed last year. Through this law, offenders will be penalised for offences committed online.
“What these people don’t know is that social media is the simplest thing to trace. It’s easy to trace the IP address. They think anyone of them can just become journalists spreading defamatory information about others,” Phiri observes.
Before the passing of the law three years ago, he says, the association received numerous questions from judges, magistrates and other law enforcing agents because it was complicated to enforce laws.
But Phiri says the ruling that sent 23-year-old Protazio Nkhoma to 42 months imprisonment for defamation on Facebook was a landmark decision on social media issues.
Nkhoma alleged in his post that known businessman Lonzoe Zimba shot dead two Americans at his house.
Mchinji First Grade Magistrate Rodwell Meja-Phiri ruled that he deserved custodial sentence “to set a precedence” to society and deter would be offenders.
Chief Executive Officer for mHub, Vincent Kumwenda, says people need to be careful about how they utilise social media.
“Every post, tweet, image they put on the social media platforms out there creates digital footprints that may haunt them or others for years.
“Malawi needs to enforce cyber usage laws to deal with cyber bullies. Social media users must also be cautious on the content they create and send through such platforms,” Kumwenda says.
He advises users to have strong passwords that cannot be easily guessed by others through what is called social engineering, where one can make out another person’s password by way of knowing them too well.
He says a good password must have a combination of capital and small letters or a figure or alphanumeric character. This would help users to keep their accounts safe.
Khanje also cautions that people should avoid taking, keeping and sharing nude pictures of themselves or their partners because one is always at risk of having them in public someday if they are kept in their phones or computers.
“Phones and computers can get stolen or develop faults and it is sometimes the people who steal or buy them from thieves that start circulating when they find them in files. Some ill-minded technicians also go out of their way to start copying and sharing stuff from gadgets instead of just repairing and giving them back to the owners without illegally accessing things they are not allowed to,” he observes.
Khanje says the public should avoid getting into quarrels with people on social media as there are many cyber bullies who take advantage of any situation to launch attacks on them.
“Also, avoid sharing too much information and images about yourself on social media as sinister people can turn that against us. In any case, you are not obliged to be on social media and there are indeed many people who are going about their lives so well without being on Facebook or WhatsApp,” he says.
Deputy Director of Legal Services for Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra), Dan Chiwoni, says circulating nude pictures may amount to an offence of distributing or transmitting pornography especially if the picture is sexually suggestive.
“….circulating the picture amounts to a breach of the woman’s privacy. People can report to the law enforcement agencies such as the police and Macra once the Act becomes operational,” he says.
Chiwoni says the Act also allows ‘intermediary service providers’ (such as internet service providers) to take down, in certain circumstances, content which is unlawful or infringes on a person’s rights.
“The intermediary service provider will take down such content upon receiving a report from any person that any content published online infringes on their rights,” he explains.
Chiwoni says once the Act is operational, Macra will be responsible for its implementation.
This will involve Macra working with relevant stakeholders such as law enforcement agencies and intermediary service providers to ensure that unlawful content on electronic communication platforms is taken down and culprits prosecuted in courts of law.
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