Last week we looked at aspects of some common cybercrimes that ordinary users are exposed to such as hacking, phishing, online scams and other crimes such as cyber bullying, spamming and more. We discussed the need for laws to protect computer users and penalise criminals.
By Miriam Tose Majome
Laws and mechanisms must be set up to deal with cybercrimes because computer-based crime is a permanent reality with the technology revolution.
Countries must establish legislation that deals specifically with cybercrimes. The idea of legislation is generally to protect computer users from crime and prevent cybercrime. However motives for establishing legislation vary from country to country. Some countries install cyber legislation with the sole intention of controlling the populace and protecting the power of the people running governments.
Social media laws
When the Cybercrime and Cyber Security Bill was mooted in Zimbabwe members of the public and other critics opined that it was solely to control and monitor social media and help crush dissent. Statements issued by government ministers gave that impression.
They suggested that social media was being used to undermine the government and influence the often talked about regime change.
Whether true or not the government has admittedly taken a very keen and active interest in social media activities. Two important things have happened.
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Firstly, the drafting of the Cybercrime and Cyber Security Bill and, secondly, the recent creation of a dedicated government ministry of Cyber Security, Threat Detection and Mitigation. The two developments are augmented by occasional aggressive statements and warnings issued by senior government officials regarding the use and abuse of social media. These three factors have combined to create a general feeling of anxiety and uncertainty among social media users who fear reprisals from the government.
Aim of the Bill
The Bill is aimed at criminalising offenses against computers and network-related crimes. It also seeks to consolidate the criminal law on computer crime and network crime and to provide for the admission of electronic evidence for such offences. More ominously for those critics in the Diaspora is the Bill seeks to arrest, extradite and prosecute Zimbabweans abroad for causing harm back in Zimbabwe for abusing social media or other computer based system. Prison sentences of up to 10 years are prescribed for prescribed offences.
Misinformation
We want to briefly address the anxiety being experienced by most social media users in the country and set the record straight on what the current legal situation is. Soon after the creation of the Cyber Security ministry there was a flurry of jokes and jibes about it. Some of the messages were evident jokes, but there was one particularly ominous one which got many people confused and even more nervous as they believed it was true. We will use parts of the message to try and allay some of the fears and myths surrounding the country’s cyberlaws.
Myth 1- No cyberlaw yet
The Cybercrimes and Cyber Security Bill has not yet been passed into law. However, this does not mean that people are at liberty to go around freely committing crimes. It is still against the law to be abusive to other people and still illegal to steal whether physically or online. Illegal conduct is still illegal conduct even under the guise of anonymity.
Making statements that seek to subvert and undermine a legitimate government are still prosecutable offences no matter the platform used. However, expressing political opinions is not illegal. There is already a plethora of legislation that can be used to deal with criminal activities even if they occur online.
Myth 2 — Big Brother is watching you
There is no Big Brother and no one is watching. It is simply not true that all computers and devices in the country are now connected to a central server somewhere where all communications are being monitored.
Apart from being false it is completely ludicrous. During the dictator Nikolai Causescue’s heyday there was a joke that there were two spies for every Romanian citizen. Quite hilarious, but this is the possibility posed by the notion that all devices in the country are connected and monitored. It simply cannot be done.
While it is true that phones can be bugged and telephone calls monitored it can only be done illegally for very few phones which belong to people of real interest to the government. The government, however, bad it may be has no interest in the romantic musings of distant lovers or teenage gossip. Given that many people have more than two devices it cannot be imagined the millions of people who would need to be employed by the government to monitor each and every device in the country.
More seriously regarding WhatsApp messages and calls, they are protected by End to End Encryption so they are inviolable by third parties. Other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook and You Tube have a more public interface so they can be monitored. There may be spies on WhatsApp groups who monitor conversations so there is need for caution not to say illegal things as they may be used against them. The key word being illegal otherwise there is nothing at all to fear about expressing opinions and sharing information publicly and privately.
Expressing political opinions and criticising government policies and the nation’s leadership and even calling for their removal is not illegal. It is an opinion and expressing opinions is allowed and protected by the Constitution. What is not allowed is inciting violence, coups and illegal government takeovers. Sharing and receiving information about politics is not illegal.
No one can be prosecuted for that. However, it is illegal to generate or share pornographic material and infringe other people’s privacy.
Next week we shall compare the cybercrime legislation of different countries and see how cyberlaws differ in different countries. It will be interesting to see how the internet is controlled in a liberal country like Sweden and a conservative country like North Korea.
