Verbal bullying on social media

Long ago, prior to the popularity of social media, adults would teach children the adage, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.” The quote was often used in the context of verbal bullying. However, the phenomenon of verbal bullying has become more prevalent via the medium of internet communication, especially among adults. Abusive comments are now publicly posted by adults for children and all to see. Social media websites only recently put more stringent measures in place to monitor hate speech and abuse. Developing countries are in a much worse state. April 26 on Twitter saw a trend of offensive hashtags against several specific Pakistani journalists. The pressure being placed on the social media website to hold users accountable for their words is necessary. However, there is an even greater effort to be made to help Twitterati and the public in general understand what is appropriate in an argument or debate and what is not.

Personal attacks have been a regular feature of disagreements and debates. Debates turn into arguments, which turn into long-drawn abusive shouting matches. Manners and etiquettes of disagreement are rarely taught in schools. However, beyond ill manners and verbal abuse, Twitter users need to take heed that their slur campaigns could be equated to defamation which is a legal offence in many places. The government recently devised the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) to deal with such cases, and the codes should be applied to set an example.

Only once new laws are applied and brought into practice, such as Peca, can they be tweaked and improved upon. For example, lawmakers can explore to what extent free speech is impacted and where to draw the line between expression of opinions using strong language and outright abuse. Popular personalities should be willing to take verbal criticism, but not at the cost of their reputation and well-being.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2019.

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