AMMAN — The
government plans to regulate social media platforms and their search engines,
going by the experience of democratic
European countries that succeeded in
controlling undesirable content.
اضافة اعلان
The plan comes
in the wake of Minister of State for Media Affairs and official government
spokesperson Faisal Shboul’s participation in the meeting of the 52nd session
of the Council of Arab Media Ministers in Cairo last month.
“The government
will work to regulate and control social media platforms, and the German
experience will be adopted as a model,” Shboul told
Jordan News,
stressing that the government’s move “will not affect the freedom of opinion
and expression”.
Shboul said that
the
Cairo meeting tackled ways of dealing with international media companies,
and that “European countries developed a charter on the dangers of social
networking platforms to children.”
“The charter is
designed for the groups that are affected most by hate speech, such as women
and minorities”; it enables “removing offensive content from social media
platforms, such as hate speech and false news, within 24 hours of publication”,
the minister said.
Despite Shboul’s
statement, experts are anxious that the approach will restrict freedom of
expression or make room for circumventing the charter and legislation, in the
absence of awareness and digital culture.
Nidal Mansour,
president of the Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists, said that “no one
supports hate speech or promotes content harmful to children, but there must be
a clear line between freedom of expression and hate speech.”
Mansour told
Jordan
News that “the government does not have the authority, or the capability to
block content”, adding that “what we fear is that a page or an influential
person who publishes critical content and does not agree with government
policies will be blocked,” and that amounts to a violation of the freedom of
opinion and expression.
“I do not
encourage the government to go in this direction,” he said, advising, instead
working “to spread awareness in the digital culture”.
Jordan Press Association (JPA) Vice-President Jamal Shtewi, however, believes that “we are
just talking about intentions, and have not seen anything on the ground yet”.
He stressed that
there is need for some legislation “to control the chaos that occurs on social
network platforms”.
“Recently, many
people have been using these sites for defamation,” unaware that they are
resorting to hate speech, he said, adding that that “social networking
platforms have become a deadly weapon due to the ignorance of some users.”
Shtewi called
for organizing professional audio-visual work, adding that “we, as an
association, are against any practice that restricts freedoms in any form, as
long as it is in line with the law”, and that “if the government abuses the
right to free expression and opinion, we will oppose it”.
He also called
for consulting with JPA members, and ensuring that freedom of expression is
safeguarded under the law.
Dean of
scientific Research and Graduate Studies Ayesh Al-Hroob told
Jordan News that “it is difficult to control the cyberspace”, and that “in Jordan, we do
not need additional legislation regulating this matter, given that the existing
legislation is sufficient,” but only “need awareness through school and
university curricula”.
Cyber security
expert Hussain Al-Jedaieh told
Jordan News that it is important to
cultivate a “digital culture for Jordanians in schools, universities and
society as a whole”.
“A clear
definition of digital citizenship is necessary, as our children spend hours on
social network platform and parents cannot impose total control,” he said.
“We have to work on
changing the societal culture,” given that personal motivation and
responsibility guide the process of content creation, he said.
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