ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, on Wednesday, urged Caribbean countries to enact legislation to address the negative impact of social media platforms.
Mitchell, who described social media as a place where people not only bully and abuse others but also engage in rampant, repeated defamation of character, said the issue needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.
“We have to push back against this because you see even some of the advanced countries recognise the risk with an uncontrolled, unfiltered social media internet space and the risk associated with how that could fundamentally undermine the kind of society we have and the cohesiveness in the society.
“So, we here in the Caribbean have to be concerned about having unfiltered access for all kinds of negativity that floats around in social media and what it does to our mental health and mental wellness,” Mitchell said as he appeared as a guest on the he guest on the Spice Morning show of the Government Information Service(GIS).
“It is something we have to be mindful of; we don’t have any policy here yet in the Caribbean of addressing those things, but to my mind, from an information point of view, you have misinformation, disinformation, you have false information, you have open, rampant, repeated defamation of people’s characters,” Mitchell said.
He told viewers that people need to understand that “this sort of behaviour is not acceptable.
“I may not take action against it, but it doesn’t mean that society should not have laws and regulations in place to protect people who do not perhaps have the strength or the emotional fortitude to be able to live through those things”.
“We also have to fight the downside of social media, which is a lot of mindless, numbness, pointless decadence,” Prime Minister Mitchell said, referring to some issues that some people may ignore, but can negatively affect society if no action is taken.
Mitchell, an attorney, described social media as a place, “where all people do is troll people, abuse people, bully people, call people all kinds of names and engage in the dark of the negative rather than focusing on the light, the positive, and all of the important work that people are engaged in trying to build the society and build the community”.
He suggested that community and other leaders should get involved in addressing the impact of social media.
“The public needs to speak about those things, the churches, civil society need to speak about those things, society needs to speak about those things because it might be the politicians today, but it can be the church leaders tomorrow, civil society leaders, it could be the trade unions’ leadership tomorrow.”
“So, if they are doing it to me as prime ministers, if they are doing it to the politicians, then who are you to do it to? Those are the things that people need to understand,” Mitchell told viewers.
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