Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) will today hold a public discussion to interrogate cybercrime and implications of government’s recent move to introduce social media regulations.
By staff reporter
AMH are publishers of NewsDay, Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard.
The discussion forum, to be held at Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare, is a platform for lawyers, human rights activists and information communication technology professionals to interrogate the proposed Cyber Bill and critically look at cyber activism versus cyber terrorism, social media regulations and the role of social media in politics and freedom of expression.
Following a spike in anti-government protests co-ordinated via social media, the State has hastily cobbled the Cyber Bill to curb what it terms abuse of social media, but lawyers and rights groups view the move as meant to muzzle freedom of expression.
The Zanu PF government fears that local protesters could take a cue from their counterparts in Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, who used social media platforms to co-ordinate their Arab Spring uprisings that successfully unseated governments in 2011.
