ERC supports Pres. Ali call to crackdown on race hate on social media

Sep 13, 2020 News

The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has thrown their support behind the vow made by President Irfaan Ali to ensure that those who spew race hate on social media will face the full brunt of the law.
“The use of social media,” President Ali said, “for the promotion of racial hate for political purpose is wholly unacceptable to me as your President and as a person, and my government will not tolerate it. I have spoken with my Attorney General and I have directed him to ensure that the full force of our laws is employed and is applied to those who pursue this criminal behaviour.”
That statement was made by the President on Friday.
In a statement yesterday, the Commissioned welcomed Ali’s pronouncements, pointing out that it will help to augment its own efforts to curb heightened racial tension due to an influx of complaints of incitement on various social media platforms.
“With numerous complaints received and instances captured by its Media Monitoring Unit,” the ERC said, “many online news establishments and persons were written to with some summoned through the “Persons of Interest” initiative and confronted.”
The findings and actions taken by the Commission were then shared with the media.
Those efforts, the ERC added, continue despite the many related challenges of fake profiles in some instances and difficulty in reaching others even with solicitation of the public’s help. Although this is being done, the ERC noted that it is cognizant these efforts are not adequate to deal with the magnitude of this worrying situation.
“The Commission remains very concerned over the proliferation of race hate and incitement on social media and believes that President Ali’s announcement is therefore most timely and invaluable to improve race relations among our people.”

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