By Sindiso Dube
Controversial socialite and online content creator Knight Taona Shadaya has slammed the Cyber Bill, describing it as “unfair and having a lot of grey areas” which makes it hard for content creators to operate.
Shadaya made the remarks during an interview on the Denny J podcast.
In 2018 Shadaya was charged with criminal insult after retweeting a message purportedly belonging to Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba.
The message read: “I can’t wait for the election fiasco to come to an end. I could do with a holiday and some good sex. My body needs a break.”
However, Chigumba, who was the complainant in the case, failed to turn up and testify a number of times.
This resulted in magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa removing Shadaya from remand and advising the State to proceed by way of summons.
Shadaya had initially pleaded guilty to the charge and was convicted before he changed his plea after the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) moved in to represent him.
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He successfully entered a “not guilty” plea, arguing that he made the initial plea under duress.
ZLHR lawyers told the court that they perused Shadaya’s plea docket, but could not find details of whether the Twitter account in the name of Chigumba was fake or real.
The lawyers also argued that there was no charge on what Shadaya did because he had retweeted what the complaint had posted on the Twitter account.
“This Bill is unfair and needs to be looked at again,” Shadaya said.
“The bad part of it is that it’s difficult to trace the origins of the content created online.
“One can create a fake account using my name and tarnish my reputation.
“There are many loopholes surrounding the bill and I hope it can be looked at and changed.”
Shadaya went on to say his tweets are not sinister in any way since Twitter has never suspended him from the micro blogging site.
“If the stuff I post on Twitter was not proper, why am I still there,” he said.
“That’s why there are terms and conditions upon using Twitter, if my content was harmful Twitter would have suspended me.
“I have had a lot of notifications from Twitter of people who attempt to get me suspended, but Twitter has never seen anything wrong with my content.”
