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Social media and the vice of hate speech in cyberspace [Nation (Kenya)](Nation (Kenya) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) During the Arab spring revolution, the Libyan government showed the lengths to which some states can go in a bid to tame the cyber world. The country had an Eagle spy system whose purpose was to perform massive interception of Internet content. The traffic from Libya's Internet service providers and mobile phones was harvested using a method known as deep-packet inspection, thus enabling security agents to intercept emails, online chats ,and Facebook messages. Whereas some Internet interception systems carry out basic filtering on IP address, the Eagle spy system of Libya analysed and stored all the communications in a massive style of interception. The system was designed to provide cyberspace surveillance and tame social media. However, it failed to tame the uprising, paving the way for the unthinkable approach of shutting down the Internet. Challenges Generally, in cyberspace, it is tricky to dissect the four aspects of freedom of expression, state security, privacy, and on-line policing. In the real sense, if a country decides to mess with the freedom of the Internet, it turns into a case of state censorship, attracting global criticism, just like what has been happening to China and the Arab world. Social media gives many users a voice that they would not have got from mainstream media. Sites like Facebook are visited by millions of people who share information and interact in virtual meeting joints. In the political world, social media and the Internet at large provide a forum where users and politicians share information. The dark side of this rears its head on the web when users abuse their rights of expression or engage in criminal activities. Such is the case for hate speech as we embrace this transition period. Technically, the task of dealing with vices like hate speech in cyberspace is tricky. A keen observation of the hate speech on the Web reveals that many of the posts are done by people hiding behind anonymous identities. The Internet is well known for ease of anonymity. A user in a public cyber café can log onto a website with an anonymous identification, email, or username. The case of Internet anonymity is made even trickier with the availability of programmes and apps that promote extra stealth and multimedia messages that self-destruct to conceal evidence. Some free web programmes offer anonymous URLs and email identities that can help a person to post content without a trace. The same anonymous identities and the posted content can also be designed to vanish from the web through a self-destructing mechanism so that there is no trace left of any communication. The government can trace people with the help of Internet protocol addresses. However, the basic fact is that connected devices can either use that static address or the dynamic address. Now, the tricky part of tracking a person is when dynamic IPs are in use. There are tools and softwares on the Web that can be used by a tech-savvy purveyor of hate speech to hide all his dirty laundry and escape without a trace. Such stealth browsing tools are sometimes used by hackers and cybercriminals to hide their activities. Big brother watching Kenya, like other countries on the globe, has a daunting task of taming cyberspace-related vices as well as crimes on other digital platforms. Recently, Information permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo said mobile telephone service providers block more than 300,000 text messages deemed to spread hate daily. The government, through the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, has also revealed that four individuals face arrest for spreading hate speech on social media. Social media creates virtual meeting joints for discussion, debate, and exchange of information. Such a sphere will certainly attract the prying eyes of the state and Internet marketers. It is worth noting that the basis of the business of social networking sites and Internet companies like Google is vested in advertisements based on the users' information, interests, and demographics. Besides, in the quest for state security, some countries resort to crude methods like Libya's Eagle spy system, hence leaving users open to privacy breaches. The writer is an ICT analyst and a telecommunication engineer. (c) 2013 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |