Over the weekend, several explicit videos went viral on social media, sending the public into a flurry of sharing, reposting, and even bullying.
But under the law, cyberbullying is a crime, and every person who pressed the "forward" button, or shared a meme, can be charged. According to the Minister of Home Affairs, it is a serious act, and all it takes is one complainant to come forward for the police to launch an investigation. Here's what he told us today.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"Firstly let me job the Commissioner of Police, I know he issued a statement on social media warning members of the general public against cyberbullying. We must understand that this is now an offense, a criminal offense by figure of the cybercrime act of 2020. I believe it is section 15 of the cybercrime act which speaks to sharing and publishing videos and photographs of a lewd and indecent nature with an aim to humiliate individuals. That particular offense under the cybercrime act I believe carries with it a prison term of 5 years, in addition to a fine of five or ten thousand and so we have to be very mindful of that because whether you're sharing that by way of Facebook, by way of WhatsApp, you become liable to be charged with this cybercrime act and so yes you have to look at the person or persons who originally shared this video but also those individuals who continue to perpetuate the crime by sharing it and so the offense continues and so I want to ask members of the public to be respectful, these young ladies have family members, this is very concerning, this is very disturbing, and we have to be mindful of a society, the type of damage that we're causing and to be mindful of the fact that this now bears criminal liability."
"If you are publishing any material, so if you're taking some of that material and making memes with it and then sharing it, you are still continuing to perpetrate that crime. And so those individuals sharing memes are likewise susceptible to be charged."
"They are likewise. offending under the cybercrime map because they're using material in order to humiliate, they're using the cyberspace, meaning you're using your devices, whether it's a phone or a computer, to share these memes that are aimed at humiliating individuals."
"We do have a cybercrime unit that is dedicated to this. It will require, of course, someone coming forward to make a complaint. I know that there are a lot of young ladies who are affected by virtue of the release of these videos, and so any one of them, I want to encourage them to come forward if it is that they feel offended, if it is that they feel humiliated, that they come forward and make a report and we will try our very best, the police at the cybercrime unit, to identify those individuals who are sharing because, like I said, it's been shared so many times, so many individuals can be charged for this offense."
