South African WhatsApp Group Administrators are now Legally Liable for Contents in their Group Channels
Emma Sadleir, a social media specialist at The Digital Law Company, has alerted WhatsApp group administrators about a recent program upgrade that can make them legally responsible for other users’ posts.
Sadleir recently referred to the WhatsApp update as a “game-changer” under South African law in a YouTube video. It effectively ends the long-running discussion in legal circles about whether or not a WhatsApp group administrators are liable for the information posted there, according to Sadleir.
Following a brief testing phase where the feature was exclusively accessible to beta users, WhatsApp recently began rolling out the option for group managers to remove messages of other chat participants. Sadleir stated that according to South African law, group administrators were held liable for any content they had the option of removing but did not.
“If you are the admin of a WhatsApp group, because of this change, you become legally responsible for everything that appears on that group,” Sadleir said.
“If somebody is abusing a group, they are sending hate speech, threats, incitement, racism, any content which is illegal, if you don’t delete the content, you become legally responsible for it.”
The laws making specific messages illegal include the Cybercrimes Act and Film and Publications Amendment Act.
The Cybercrimes Act was largely implemented by President Cyril Ramaphosa in December of last year. The Film and Publications Amendment Act was put into effect earlier this year by Ramaphosa and the minister of communications, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.
Last Monday, Ntshavheni published regulations in accordance with the amended statute.
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Sadleir also brought out the fact that the most recent WhatsApp version gives users more time to remove a message for everyone. Prior to now, it was only possible an hour after the message was sent. Users have up to 48 hours after the update to erase messages for everyone.
If you are reported for enabling content that is now prohibited under South African legislation, that extra capability can be important when you try to prove your case in court. Sadleir strongly recommended that viewers share the message with family members and friends to protect themselves from potential legal repercussions.