Regulate, not suppress
Holness clarifies social media monitoring comment
MARTHA BRAE, Trelawny — Prime Minister Andrew Holness has assured the nation that the Government intends to create a safe online space, not suppress freedom of speech.
The prime minister has come under flak for recent comments about his Administration’s intention to begin clamping down on the proliferation of false information on social media platforms. Critics have interpreted his comments as a threat to freedom of expression.
However, delivering the keynote address at the launch of the Youth Summer Employment Programme (YSEP) 2024 at William Knibb Memorial High School in Trelawny on Friday, Holness sought to set the record straight. Scores of students were in attendance.
“We want to be able to properly regulate that space, not to take away anybody’s freedom but to help you to be safe with the information you receive and with the transactions that you have to do online. That is what we mean when we say we want to create this safe social media space for our young people,” he said.
“We want it to be safe for your information. We want information integrity online, and we want it to be safe for your transactions. I know many of you have been victims of scams. You have been sent phishing e-mail to say, ‘Send me this’, or ‘Send this link’ or ‘Click on this link’. Then when you do it, the money in your bank account gone,” Holness added.
He stressed that while social media is positive for the economy and society, and Government wants people to use it, there are pitfalls that come with the technology.
“The challenge is that we live in a world where there are persons who use this very important platform for bad purposes. It’s not a challenge if it is at an insignificant level — a few people may be doing bad things on social media. The problem is when it becomes a public concern, meaning when it becomes, for example, a threat to persons’ lives and mental health. Because we are seeing many cases of depression, withdrawal, people who feel that they have been body shamed, have been harassed, they have been bullied and it does affect their mental health status,” the prime minister said.
“It does become a problem when it is being used for reputational damage, to defame and libel people. And it does become a challenge when it is being used to create public mischief, like to send bomb threats or to say that somewhere is going to be shut down when it isn’t. Or to send out information that is inaccurate that people are going to rely on to use. It can become an issue if the information is used to affect, for example, our banking system, and our financial system,” he added.
Holness revealed that Government will be launching a massive public education campaign to ensure that social media is being used for the country’s benefit, such as educating young people “who are native to social media”. He said the goal is for them to “develop the culture, attitude, ethics and behaviour that are positive and pro-social on social media”.
The prime minister said as part of that thrust the Jamaica Information Service recently launched a fact-checking platform.
“You, as users, have to develop the discernment, what is called the media literacy, to distinguish between what is good and what is bad. What the Government is going to be doing — in addition to other things which we will roll out — but we have already rolled out our fact-checker service. This is to help you now in your own media literacy and discernment,” he added.
He also stressed the importance of inculcating a culture of verification.
“We come from a culture where if it is written, we tend to believe it. You cannot have that anymore. You must now develop this culture of checking. They used to say believe but verify. So we are now providing the opportunity where if you see something that you’re unsure of, you can post on to our website, we can check it and post what the actual situation is. You can go there and see what the factual situation is on all the topical issues,” Holness said.
During the launch of YSEP 2024, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie revealed that approximately 10,000 young people will participate in the month-long summer programme which will kick off the second week in July. Participants will each be paid $60,000 for the period.