When Pope Francis arrived in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world, he had a message of peace, dialogue and tolerance between religions and a warning against extremism. In recent years, religious rivalry has given rise to extremism that distorts religious beliefs through “deception and violence.” Much of that deception has been and is through social media platforms under the guise of “freedom of speech” and has fomented hatred and violence.
The pope said that inter-religious dialogue is the way to counter intolerance and extremism.
He said powerfully, “There are times when faith in God is, sadly, manipulated to foment divisions and increase hatred instead of furthering peace, communion, dialogue, respect, cooperation and fraternity.” Much of the manipulation and distortion of faith, truth and gross immorality is spread by social media and presented as an exercise of “freedom of speech.” The pope has said in the past that on-line media outlets that live off propaganda are “dirty media outlet[s] that soils the minds of the young and the old.”
Authorities are acting to curb the extremism and manipulation of the truth on social media platforms and to curb hate speech and child abuse crimes over the Internet.
On a previous occasion, speaking in reference to the Muslim faith, Pope Francis said that fundamental human rights of freedom of speech and freedom of faith must be respected but never abused. “One cannot [use “freedom of speech” to] provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith,” he said, adding,“There is a limit.” He observed that the fundamental right to the liberty of expression comes with the obligation and duty to always speak for the “Common Good”.
There are times when faith in God is, sadly, manipulated to foment divisions and increase hatred instead of furthering peace, communion, dialogue, respect, cooperation and fraternity
Pope Francis
The right to freely express one’s opinion, one’s thoughts and speak the truth to power is a most sacred and fundamental right cherished and protected by freedom defenders everywhere. It is a right established by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is in most constitutions. It is a right to be exercised, especially through freedom of the press, without fear of retaliation or punishment or censorship by the government. Many journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed in exercising that freedom to publish the truth.
Pope Francis was restating the truth that the freedom of expression is not absolute and does not allow people to manipulate the truth, spread fake news, incite hatred, intolerance, violence and extremism.
There are some owners of US social media platforms who believe that the US Law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which “provides limited federal immunity to providers and users of interactive computer services”, is a green light for all online publishing.
However, the EU Digital Services Act of 2024 does not recognsze section 230 as a free pass for digital platforms.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
https://www.Facebook.com/CFM-Gifted-to-give-101039001847033
The precious value “freedom of speech” is distorted and abused by some on social media and can collide and clash with other rights like the protection of freedom of religion, privacy, morality, child rights and human dignity.
The European Union has a strong law, The Digital Services Act of February 2024. It prohibits all such offensive postings under which Pavel Durov was arrested and may be prosecuted. The act will hold these platforms legally liable for their users’ unlawful behaviour if they are aware of illegal content
Reputations can be violated by online crimes such as libel, slander, theft of intellectual property, pornography, extortion, child abuse images, obscenity, streaming child sex abuse or inciting violence endangering the public.
Some owners of social media platforms allow some of these crimes on their platforms in the name of freedom of speech. Subscribers in some countries can advocate racism, religious hatred, intolerance, extremism and spread discrimination, misogyny and racism. Some use the platform to incite violence and extremism as happened recently in the UK. Although all these crimes are forbidden by law, it is flouted and ignored by Philippine telecommunication Internet service providers [ISPs] that consider themselves above the law. The CEOs of these companies could be arrested in Europe like Pavel Durov, billionaire owner of Telegram.
Some owners of social media platforms ISPs allow and encourage these illegal activities in the name of “freedom of speech.” They earn huge amounts of money doing so.
Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist,” as the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, is in conflict with the judiciary of Brazil. Recently, a panel of Supreme Court justices supported their fellow judge, Alexandre de Moraes, in ordering the blocking of X in Brazil. The judge levied a daily fine of US$9,000 until Musk obeys the law and appoints a country representative and removes hateful and extreme, right-wing content. Musk responded with insults and claimed the court decision was a violation of free speech.
The 39-year-old billionaire owner and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, a Russian national with dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, was arrested in France and is being charged under EU law for allowing crimes like child pornography, trafficking fraud, drug sales, hate speech, and many more on his platform.
It [freedom of speech] is a right to be exercised, especially through freedom of the press, without fear of retaliation or punishment or censorship by the government. Many journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed in exercising that freedom to publish the truth
The European Union has a strong law, The Digital Services Act of February 2024. It prohibits all such offensive postings under which Pavel Durov was arrested and may be prosecuted. The act will hold these platforms legally liable for their users’ unlawful behaviour if they are aware of illegal content. Such content includes child sexual abuse material, terrorist content, illegal hate speech or illegal goods and services.
In the United States, politicians in 19 states have responded to the abusive content on social media and websites in recent years by passing laws to protect children from getting access to the shocking explicit websites like Pornhub—the fourth most popular website on Earth, some say.
States are demanding that visitors to such websites show a government ID card every time someone checks in. The response of Pornhub has been to close down all access to their websites to everyone.
New proposed legislation in Europe, Australia, the United States and some Asian countries are going to demand that minors show government-issued age verification IDs to access certain social media platforms.
That may protect children but it will not stop the livestreaming of children being abused online. That needs strong enforcement of the Anti-OSAEC law, which the Philippines is lacking.
Father Shay Cullen
www.preda.org
