SHUT DOWN SOCIAL MEDIA AND SPARK UP A REVOLUTION
The Internet with its numerous beneficial services has become the most powerful tool in the 21st century the world over.
Social media is just but one of the popular and well appreciated services the Internet has provided humanity.It has come to broaden the fronties of digital democracy making access to information quite easier and convenient.
Social media has become so powerful to the extent that the concern of Lord Acton on the possible abuse of enormous power is most dangerous to overlook,especially, in this era of democracy and freedom of speach.
There is no gainsaying the impact of social media extend to political circles.An indication of the political impact as well as the power of the social media was made clear to leaders across the continent during the "Arab Spring" in 2010 and in the "African Spring" of October 2014, when long time president Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso was toppled by a popular uprising . Indeed,"Social media did not cause the "Arab Spring" but helped to Cordinate it"-Arthur Goldstuck from technical market research company world wide worx, told the BBC.
A research by Portland communicators equally indicates that African twitters tend to be more political than twitters in other countries.
As a result, people in authority particularly in African countries have always raised concerns about Social media and activities therein when elections brew with most of them resorting to disconnecting popular social media platforms during elections.Most recently are the cases of Congo-Brazzaville, Chad and Uganda.Congolesse officials said the blackout was to prevent "illegal publication of results".
In the case of Uganda, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsAp were all blocked in the name of silencing conversations on the elections over such medias.
The Inspector General of Ghana Police Service John Kudalor in trying to learn from what he 'babtized' as "best practices" from these countries was heard saying at a media interaction in Accra on May 26,2016,that "At one stage, I said that if it becomes critical on the eve and also on the Election Day,we shall block all social media sites as other countries have done. We're thinking about it".According to the IGP, the move was to counter the actions of potential 'trouble makers'.
He has since being subjected to intense public criticisms in the court of public opinion with many describing his comments as repressive ,unjust and against the right to freedom of expression....
Mr.IGP,I beg to add my voice to the raging debate you have started .Yes, it's very easy to shut down social media in a country like Ghana where most of us depend on telecommunication companies as our Internet service providers.You simply ask them to restrict access to specific social media IP (Internet protocol) addresses and with the click of a mouse it's done!But lets look at the issues;
Mr.IGP,I pray you not to blame Ghanaians,citizenship education has brought us to the know about what our Fourth Republican Constitution means when it says in Chapter Five Article 21 (1) that all persons shall have the right to-
(a) freedom of speach and expression which shall include freedom of the press and other media;emphasis on "other media".
(f) information,subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society.
The extent of the restrictions to these rights as imposed under the criminal code of 1960 (act 29) among others has not also escaped our attention.
We are not also blind to the fact that freedom of speach as a concept is an inherent and inalienable human right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment.
As a member state with binding obligations, we're even more vindicated by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948,which provides in article 19 that, "everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impact information and ideas through any media and regardless of the frontiers".
This is the crust of the matter and the IGP must be told to wake up to the realities!He says, "We're learning from other countries".This postion and thinking is 'over the bar'.Does he know that what the Ugandan government did by placing a 4-day ban on social media during their general elections was an abuse of fundamental human rights? Indeed, Citizens of Uganda circumvented this abuse of a ban via Firechat, an App (peer - to - Peer connectivity) that works without the Internet and has been used by activists and demonstrators in places like Iraq and Hong Kong.
In the quest to access social media, many Ugandans turned to Virtual Private Networks (VPN), which reroute one's Internet connections through computers in other countries where the ban does not apply.Indeed, nearly 1.5 million people of Internet using populace downloaded VPN software to reroute thier Internet connection and return on social media, where discussions over the elections continued to rage.
Infact, I was on a platform(type and name withheld) where updates on the elections in Uganda were shared despite the ban.The location of strikes and roadblocks, location and brutal behaviour of police forces towards opposition supporters, the "preventive house arrest" of the Kizza Basigye, a close contender to the 30-years rulling president Gen.Y.K Museveni of National Resistance Movement Party who was re-elected for another five - year term were not news to me at all.
Akateng Isabella, an activist with Uganda Youth Network, said, "This is a lesson to the government that it's population is young and creative and very unwilling to be held to ransom".
When the communications commission learned that people were accessing Social media via encrypted apps, they send a statement to WBS TV.Uganda, which it posted on its facebook page, "We are going to track all those who are using them, and they are going to be arrested for treason".I guess this is the best practice the IGP is talking about?
Mr. IGP,find out what the throw back was when twitter was banned in Turkey....! The ban was circumvented and subsequently lifted after two weeks when the constitutional court ruled that the ban was a breach of the right to freedom of expression.
Before the IGP even think of this untold abuse of the 1992 constitution which is anchored on rule of law,he must know that,Ghana today is relatively peaceful because of our freedom of speach. Any attempt to take this away from the people can and will spark a revolution.
If he insist on his decision, I can only reason with my prof.of communications Andrew Gadzekpo at the School of Communications studies, University of Ghana that,"we have a strong social media-loving public and social movement that will protest, and I will be one of those included in the protests".
I believe Ghanaians are out for peace and there are numerous workable alternatives to peace we can all explore.We did it before in 2012 and we will do it again in 2016. The IGP must be cautioned not to take Ghana back to the days of 'Coup d'etats'.He must be cautioned not to spark any unwarranted revolution in out dear country.
May God bless our homeland Ghana and make us bold and strong in the struggle to make our country a better place to live.
The Internet with its numerous beneficial services has become the most powerful tool in the 21st century the world over.
Social media is just but one of the popular and well appreciated services the Internet has provided humanity.It has come to broaden the fronties of digital democracy making access to information quite easier and convenient.
Social media has become so powerful to the extent that the concern of Lord Acton on the possible abuse of enormous power is most dangerous to overlook,especially, in this era of democracy and freedom of speach.
There is no gainsaying the impact of social media extend to political circles.An indication of the political impact as well as the power of the social media was made clear to leaders across the continent during the "Arab Spring" in 2010 and in the "African Spring" of October 2014, when long time president Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso was toppled by a popular uprising . Indeed,"Social media did not cause the "Arab Spring" but helped to Cordinate it"-Arthur Goldstuck from technical market research company world wide worx, told the BBC.
A research by Portland communicators equally indicates that African twitters tend to be more political than twitters in other countries.
As a result, people in authority particularly in African countries have always raised concerns about Social media and activities therein when elections brew with most of them resorting to disconnecting popular social media platforms during elections.Most recently are the cases of Congo-Brazzaville, Chad and Uganda.Congolesse officials said the blackout was to prevent "illegal publication of results".
In the case of Uganda, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsAp were all blocked in the name of silencing conversations on the elections over such medias.
The Inspector General of Ghana Police Service John Kudalor in trying to learn from what he 'babtized' as "best practices" from these countries was heard saying at a media interaction in Accra on May 26,2016,that "At one stage, I said that if it becomes critical on the eve and also on the Election Day,we shall block all social media sites as other countries have done. We're thinking about it".According to the IGP, the move was to counter the actions of potential 'trouble makers'.
He has since being subjected to intense public criticisms in the court of public opinion with many describing his comments as repressive ,unjust and against the right to freedom of expression....
Mr.IGP,I beg to add my voice to the raging debate you have started .Yes, it's very easy to shut down social media in a country like Ghana where most of us depend on telecommunication companies as our Internet service providers.You simply ask them to restrict access to specific social media IP (Internet protocol) addresses and with the click of a mouse it's done!But lets look at the issues;
Mr.IGP,I pray you not to blame Ghanaians,citizenship education has brought us to the know about what our Fourth Republican Constitution means when it says in Chapter Five Article 21 (1) that all persons shall have the right to-
(a) freedom of speach and expression which shall include freedom of the press and other media;emphasis on "other media".
(f) information,subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society.
The extent of the restrictions to these rights as imposed under the criminal code of 1960 (act 29) among others has not also escaped our attention.
We are not also blind to the fact that freedom of speach as a concept is an inherent and inalienable human right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment.
As a member state with binding obligations, we're even more vindicated by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948,which provides in article 19 that, "everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impact information and ideas through any media and regardless of the frontiers".
This is the crust of the matter and the IGP must be told to wake up to the realities!He says, "We're learning from other countries".This postion and thinking is 'over the bar'.Does he know that what the Ugandan government did by placing a 4-day ban on social media during their general elections was an abuse of fundamental human rights? Indeed, Citizens of Uganda circumvented this abuse of a ban via Firechat, an App (peer - to - Peer connectivity) that works without the Internet and has been used by activists and demonstrators in places like Iraq and Hong Kong.
In the quest to access social media, many Ugandans turned to Virtual Private Networks (VPN), which reroute one's Internet connections through computers in other countries where the ban does not apply.Indeed, nearly 1.5 million people of Internet using populace downloaded VPN software to reroute thier Internet connection and return on social media, where discussions over the elections continued to rage.
Infact, I was on a platform(type and name withheld) where updates on the elections in Uganda were shared despite the ban.The location of strikes and roadblocks, location and brutal behaviour of police forces towards opposition supporters, the "preventive house arrest" of the Kizza Basigye, a close contender to the 30-years rulling president Gen.Y.K Museveni of National Resistance Movement Party who was re-elected for another five - year term were not news to me at all.
Akateng Isabella, an activist with Uganda Youth Network, said, "This is a lesson to the government that it's population is young and creative and very unwilling to be held to ransom".
When the communications commission learned that people were accessing Social media via encrypted apps, they send a statement to WBS TV.Uganda, which it posted on its facebook page, "We are going to track all those who are using them, and they are going to be arrested for treason".I guess this is the best practice the IGP is talking about?
Mr. IGP,find out what the throw back was when twitter was banned in Turkey....! The ban was circumvented and subsequently lifted after two weeks when the constitutional court ruled that the ban was a breach of the right to freedom of expression.
Before the IGP even think of this untold abuse of the 1992 constitution which is anchored on rule of law,he must know that,Ghana today is relatively peaceful because of our freedom of speach. Any attempt to take this away from the people can and will spark a revolution.
If he insist on his decision, I can only reason with my prof.of communications Andrew Gadzekpo at the School of Communications studies, University of Ghana that,"we have a strong social media-loving public and social movement that will protest, and I will be one of those included in the protests".
I believe Ghanaians are out for peace and there are numerous workable alternatives to peace we can all explore.We did it before in 2012 and we will do it again in 2016. The IGP must be cautioned not to take Ghana back to the days of 'Coup d'etats'.He must be cautioned not to spark any unwarranted revolution in out dear country.
May God bless our homeland Ghana and make us bold and strong in the struggle to make our country a better place to live.
By ANANPANSAH, B ABRAHAM ( AB)
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA BUSINESS SCHOOL(UGBS )
0241129910 / 0200704844
aananapansah@yahoo.com / aananapansah@gmail.com
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA BUSINESS SCHOOL(UGBS )
0241129910 / 0200704844
aananapansah@yahoo.com / aananapansah@gmail.com
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