Social Media Clampdown - Broadcasting Commission Wants To Police Online Sites

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The Broadcasting Commission has urged the Holness administration to increase its oversight responsibility beyond free-to-air electronic media to policing social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.

Citing growing concerns about cyberbullying, inappropriate contentography and violent content, the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica (BCJ) has called for the Government to giving it more powers of sanction in a revamp of legislation governing the local digital media landscape.

In correspondence submitted to Information Minister Ruel Reid, BCJ Chairman Anthony Clayton and Executive Director Cordel Green want the BCJ’s expanded oversight to halt the use of media for the proliferation of hate speech, unethical advertising, disinformation, scamming and terrorist recruitment.

The Broadcasting Commission expressed outrage at the loss of traditional media gatekeepers and the consequent rise in fake news, especially from unregulated online entities.

“This revolution has been liberating and enabling, but has also brought many serious threats. Jamaica cannot remain in the slow lane. So, the challenge facing Jamaica is to make a rapid transition to the new digital world, managing risks and limiting harm,” Clayton and Green charged.

Social Media Clampdown - Broadcasting Commission Wants To Police Online Sites


What is speech?

The expression of or the ability to express thoughts and feelings by articulate sounds.

Speech

the communication or expression of thoughts in spoken words

Speech


What is hate?

to dislike someone or something very much:

Hate

Feel intense dislike for

Hate

extreme dislike or disgust

Hatred


What is hate speech?

public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or groupbased on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation (= the fact of beinggay, etc.):

speech expressing hatred of a particular group of people

Christian evangelist was accused of a hate crime and locked up in a cell after preaching from the Bible to a gay teenager.

Gordon Larmour, 42, was charged by police after telling the story of Adam and Eve to a 19-year-old who asked him about God’s views on homosexuality.

The street preacher referred to the Book of Genesis and stated that God created Adam and Eve to produce children.

Within minutes he was frogmarched to a police van, accused of threatening or abusive behaviour 'aggravated by prejudice relating to sexual orientation' - despite not swearing or using any form of offensive language.

The father-of-one spent a night in custody and faced a six-month ordeal before a sheriff cleared him of any blame.

Preacher locked up for hate crime after quoting the Bible to gay teenager


Toronto police have issued a Canada-wide warrant on charges of inciting hatred for a Christian who handed out flyers at the 2016 Toronto Pride Parade warning of the spiritual and biological dangers of sodomy.

Police issue Canada-wide arrest warrant for Christian accused of LGBT ‘hate’ crimes

What is disinformation?

false information which is intended to mislead, especially propaganda issued by a government organization to a rival power or the media.

Disinformation

false information spread in order to deceive people:

Disinformation

The minister of Education, the Honourable Senator Ruel Reid, has, in recent times, expressed concerns about educators and board members who are active in politics and who are critical of him and policies of the education ministry in the public domain. He has since published a raft of proposals that he wants to be in the regulations to govern how, when, where, and who should not be allowed to criticise him in the public domain.

Mark Malabver | The Miseducation Of Senator Ruel Reid

As I document in my book, "The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet," Beijing's model of the internet is now spreading beyond its borders, with China's censors working actively with their counterparts in Russia, Uganda and a host of other countries to build up internet controls and crack down on online dissent.
A new report from Freedom House -- a US government-funded NGO -- supports this. During 2018, the authors found, "internet freedom declined for the eighth consecutive year."
"A cohort of countries is moving toward digital authoritarianism by embracing the Chinese model of extensive censorship and automated surveillance systems," Freedom House said.

..."Throughout (2018), authoritarians used claims of 'fake news' and data scandals as a pretext to move closer to the China," the report said. "Governments in countries such as Egypt and Iran rewrote restrictive media laws to apply to social media users, jailed critics under measures designed to curb false news, and blocked foreign social media and communication services."

China is exporting the Great Firewall as internet freedom declines around the world

China has embraced mobile internet-based services because they improve convenience and access to services. Now the government is taking a step toward streamlining bureaucracy by digitising the national ID card, which is needed as proof of identity for many types of transactions

A look at China’s push for digital national ID cards

Authorities increasingly deploy mass surveillance systems to tighten control over society. In 2018, the government continued to collect, on a mass scale, biometrics including DNA and voice samples; use such biometrics for automated surveillance purposes; develop a nationwide reward and punishment system known as the “social credit system”; and develop and apply “big data” policing programs aimed at preventing dissent. All of these systems are being deployed without effective privacy protections in law or in practice, and often people are unaware that their data is being gathered, or how it is used or stored.

China and Tibet

Under the Government's proposed National Identification System (NIDS), Jamaicans without a National Identification Card (NIC) will not be able to do business with government agencies and departments when it is rolled out in 2019. Additionally, persons without the national ID might also face serious challenges as they seek to do business with the private sector.

"The intention is that we will also have on board the private sector, particularly international institutions, who will not do business with anybody without their NIN (National Identification Number) and NIC," Jacqueline Lynch-Stewart, chief technical director of the Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division in the Office of the Prime Minister shared at a forum staged by Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) yesterday at the University of the West Indies.

Lynch-Stewart said that the current bill is not cast in stone, noting that adjustments could be made during the upcoming parliamentary debate.

She argued that already, persons now doing business with the Government require a Tax Registration Number. "My understanding is that if you go to a government entity to do business and you don't have one, then they send you to get one," she added.

Some participants at the forum raised concerns about the provision in the National Identification and Registration Act, 2017, that would bar persons without an NIC from accessing government services.

No ID, No Access - J'cans Will Need National Identification Card To Access Gov't Goods, Services