When Internet Shade Gets Too Dark

People who have manners make their grandmothers proud. But sometimes you put those manners on pause when you believe an oppressive system endangers you or people you feel empathy for. That’s okay. But the problem is that in Jamaica some take it too far, as happens abroad also. The Internet clearly releases that nasty monster that lives in some of us. Here are some recent local and foreign examples.

When Lisa Hanna expressed dismay that Kartel illegally released songs from prison, many were outraged that she dared disrespect “the boss.” We all have a right to opinions, even controversial ones, but the following response was way out of order:

We get it. She upset you…but wow. Audacious displays of Internet machismo Internet often would never happen face-to-face, (defiant teens (below), and actual bad**ses notwithstanding).

The problem with Internet toughness, apart from anonymity emboldening some people, is what can follow. On the controversy around Tambourine Army’s Latoya Nugent ’s arrest for the use of a computer for malicious communication (yes, that’s a thing), DPP Paula Llewellyn explained the section of the Cybercrimes Act that Nugent was charged under. Full article here.

In short, if you publish something obscene that is deemed malicious communication, which could include an Internet post you can be fined $4,000,000 JMD or serve up to 15 years in prison. Yeah, you read that right. An obscene publication being one that constitutes a threat or is menacing in nature, that intimidates that harm, danger or punishment will befall a person. Full article here.

Of course, that’s a little crazy. So the government has since advised that revisions are underway because of concerns that this kind of law inhibits freedom of expression. Article here.

State censorship can be a slippery slope and has often results in peculiarities such as Facebook and many other websites being banned in China for years to maintain state control. Facilitators of workarounds for the ban on controversial books in China even ended up being disappeared, according to reports.

On a more amusing, but still bizzare note, the Thai government recently arranged to have Facebook geoblock users in Thailand from seeing this video of their king in a crop top shopping with one of his mistresses. The country’s laws ban criticisms of the monarchy, and as such restricted access. Article in full here.  Image of Thai King Vajiralongkorn, his poodle and a mistress below (photo credit, The Daily Mail):

Life can be stranger than fiction sometimes, and we definitely have a right to make noise about it. In the future, when we are tempted to put someone on blast on the internet, maybe we should pause and choose our words carefully, remembering there’s a person on the other side of that screen and that if we really want to risk 4 million dollars or 15 years of freedom, we’d better have a d*#&ed good reason for doing it.