Social Media has become the world’s greatest platform for
social interactions, which has broken down many physical boundaries of nations.
People that you, otherwise, would not have known have now become your friends
through social networking. Despite all the goodwill, social media is fast
becoming a platform for perpetuating some of the ills in society. There have
been reports of fraud, rumour, false propaganda and in recent times, the recruitment
of people especially teenagers into the camp of terrorists. It is feared that
if unchecked, social media can spin out of control.
In order to prevent its citizens from visiting these social
media platforms, countries like China have put restrictions on the use of some
social media sites. Whether this is good or bad for democracy does not really
count here since China is a communist state.
There have been debates about the “appropriate” use of
social media in Ghana. “Should Ghana have an exclusive social media
censorship policy?”
David Aryeetey,
Online Journalist – Ghana Reporters.com
To some extent, I agree with the idea that Ghana’s social
media should be exclusively censored. The reason being that some people take
advantage of the liberty to post or comment on anything at all without thinking
about the repercussions it will have on our society. Censoring it will control
the kind of content being put on there.
In contrast, censoring it will also impede our rights to
information. As a country that prides itself as a democratic nation, such a
policy would conflict with the ideals of democracy. Furthermore, with the media
pushing for the passage of the Right to Information Bill by parliament, such a
move would undermine the effort.
Samira Yaro, Administrative
Officer – Escort Printing & Advertising Services
I think censorship on social media will be a very good idea
as far as Ghana is concerned. This is because people tend to publish
information that can be detrimental to the security of the country. The
gatekeeping of the country has already been breached with the advent of social
media; where just about anybody with any information can post it, whether
verified or not.
Though I believe in freedom of speech and right to
information, I also believe exercising your rights, ends where another’s nose
begins. However, it looks like social media does not respect such boundaries.
The fact that it has become a platform, where people can say anything
derogatory against another and get away with it is quite disturbing. Therefore,
some sort of censorship will help.
Sarah Xatse, Student
– Ghana Institute of Journalism
Social media has become the quickest way of accessing any
information or breaking news. Talk about the Melcom disaster; before reporters
could take their cameras to capture the incident, social media was way ahead of
them. Censorship will give too much power to the gatekeepers, who would want to
manipulate the system to their own benefit. I can only imagine what people
would do to get rid of information that does not go in their favour. Also, the
sort of corruption or blackmail that will spring up if people feel they have
damaging information about other people will only make things worse.
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