Fiji’s Police Commissioner calls for social media control

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Commissioner of Police Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho. Picture: FT FILE

POLICE Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho has called for controls to be placed on social media sites such as Facebook.

He has also called on the media to be responsible when reporting on issues that could result in racial vilification and the propagation of ill feeling towards a group or race of people.

Citing a case where a 13-year-old boy’s claims of almost being abducted resulted in social media comments against the Chinese community — and the Christchurch mosque killing which drew some negative comments against Muslims — he said controls were needed.

“We need to have some form of controls for people to be more responsible in the way that they comment on platforms like Facebook,” he said.

“It is really worrying when you look at the comments being generated and if we do not have controls in place, things could escalate and we need to set up controls so that things do not get out of hand.”

Brig-Gen Qiliho also urged media outlets to be more responsible when reporting on issues.

The call for social media controls is not new.

Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had spoken about the misuse of social media in Fiji during the 2018 A-G’s Conference in December last year.

He said the introduction of the Online Safety Act on January 1 this year would promote a safe online culture and environment that addresses cyberbullying, cyberstalking, internet trolling, and exposure to offensive or harmful content.

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