By Fr. Shay Cullen, Founder of PREDA (est. 1974)
When Pope Francis arrived in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world, he delivered a message of peace, dialogue and religious tolerance, along with a warning against extremism. In recent years, religious rivalry gave rise to extremism that distorted religious beliefs through “deception and violence.” Much of this deception has been spread via social media platforms under the guise of “freedom of speech,” and has fomented hatred and violence. Pope Francis said that inter- religious dialogue is the way to counter intolerance and extremism.
He made a powerful statement: “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 this manipulation and distortion of faith, truth and gross immorality is spread by social media, often presented as an exercise of “freedom of speech.” He condemned on-line media outlets that thrive on propaganda, calling them “dirty media outlets that soil the minds of the young and the old.”
Authorities are taking action to curb extremism, manipulation of truth on social media platforms, and to address hate speech and online child abuse. On a previous occasion, speaking in reference to the Muslim Faith, Pope Francis said that fundamental human rights – freedom of speech and freedom of faith – must be respected, but never be abused. “One cannot use “freedom of speech” to provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith,” he said. There is a limit. The fundamental right to the liberty of expression comes with the obligation and duty to always speak for the “Common Good,” he said.
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.
Some owners of US social media platforms believe that the United States Law under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which “provides limited federal immunity to providers and users of interactive computer services”, gives them a green light for all online publishing. However, the European Union Digital Services Act of 2024 does not recognize section 230 as a free pass for digital platforms. The precious value of “freedom of speech” is distorted and abused by some on social media and can clash with other rights such as the protection of freedom of religion, privacy, morality, children’s rights and human dignity. Reputations can be damaged by online crimes such as libel, slander, theft of intellectual property, pornography, extortion, child abuse images, obscenity, streaming child sex abuse or inciting violence that endanger the public. Still, some owners of social media platforms allow these crimes in the name of freedom of speech. Their 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 like what happened recently in the UK. Although these are forbidden by law, it is flouted and ignored by the Philippine telecommunication Internet service providers that consider themselves above the law. Additionally, some owners of social media platforms and Internet Service Providers (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,” owner of X (formerly Twitter), is in conflict with the judiciary of Brazil. Recently, a panel of Supreme Court justices supported their fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes in blocking Elon Musk’s X platform in Brazil. The judge levied a daily fine of US$9000 against X until Musk obeys the law and appoints a country representative and removes hateful and extreme, right-wing content. Musk claims to be a “Free Speech Absolutist” and responded with insults and claimed the court decision was a violation of free speech.
Pavel Durov, 39, a Russian national with dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, owner and CEO of Telegram, 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. The European Union has a strong law, The Digital Services Act of February 2024. It prohibits all such offensive postings. The act will hold these platforms legally liable for their users’ unlawful behavior 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 web sites like Pornhub – the fourth most popular website on Earth, some say. The US States are demanding that visitors to web sites like this show a government ID card every time the customer checks in. Pornhub’s response was to close down access to their websites to everyone.
New proposed legislation in Europe, Australia, the United States and some Asian countries are demanding minors to show government-issued age verification IDs to access certain social media platforms that may protect children but it will not stop the live streaming of children being abused online. This needs strong enforcement of the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse of Exploitation of Children law, which, unfortunately, the Philippines is lacking.
