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There are some things you should know before you pass on any WhatsApp messages, or share anything on Twitter and Facebook.
That’s because what you post or share might constitute a hate crime or hate speech.
Although, hopefully, decency, respect, and common sense will allow you to see that everything outlined below is rather obvious.
Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice and correctional services just published the updated version of the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and the Hate Speech Bill.
There’s a call for public comment on the bill, which outlines what constitutes a hate crime or hate speech offence, as well as detailing the proposed prosecution of people who commit any of the offences.
The bill’s definition of hate speech is as follows, per BusinessTech:
A person commits ‘hate speech’ when they publish or share statements that clearly intend to be harmful or incite harm.
Per MyBroadband, the bill’s definition of hate speech includes anything being sent via platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter:
It criminalises any person who intentionally distributes or makes available a data message which that person knows constitutes hate speech.
In other words, you’re liable for what you send around on WhatsApp, if the message is “directed at a specific person who can be considered a victim of hate speech”.
A hate speech offence includes promoting or propagating hatred based on the ground of these 15 categories:
- Age
- Albinism
- Birth
- Colour
- Culture
- Disability
- Ethnic or social origin
- Gender or gender identity
- HIV status
- Language
- Nationality or migrant or refugee status
- Race
- Religion
- Sex, which includes intersex
- Sexual orientation
Harm constitutes anything that creates emotional, psychological, physical, social, or economic damage.
However, the bill does exclude anything done in good faith from the definition of hate speech, such as:
- Artistic creativity;
- A performance or another form of expression;
- Academic or scientific inquiry;
- Fair and accurate reporting;
- Commentary in the public interest.
It is a fine line and we all have to learn to walk it.
If anyone is found to have committed a hate speech offence, they can be fined and jailed for up to three years in the case of a first conviction.
For any subsequent convictions, an offender will be fined again and jailed for up to five years.
You can check out the full bill embedded here.
Parliament is expecting all comments on the bill to be in by no later than October 1.
Submissions and enquiries can be directed to hatecrimes@parliament.gov.za.
[sources:businesstech&mybroadband]
