Is social media force for good or evil?

From graphic images of accidents’ victims and disturbing pictures of physical abuse to rumours of infidelity on celebrities and cynical stories associating clergymen with occultism, social media usage in Malawi has not been short of controversies of late.

The introduction of internet-based communication in Malawi about a decade ago brought with it a new wave of optimism over the efficiency of information sharing among people over long distances, at reduced timelines and at low cost.

But social media—defined as a collective of internet-based communication channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content producing and sharing, and collaboration—has become a nightmare for some.

Of late, social media platforms have turned into battlegrounds for settling scores as Blantyre-based banker, Phillip Naunje, has realised. In January 2016, Naunje was alleged on social media platforms to have butchered his wife, Florence, on suspicion of infidelity—but it turned out to be an elaborate, malicious hoax.

Naunje stormed Nation Publications Limited (NPL) newsroom together with his ‘butchered’ wife to pour cold water on the social media reports and pictures.

But Jimmy Kainja—a social media communication expert—says while some people have displayed wrong intentions with social media, the technology is the best tool for people-centred communication.

“One thing that must be clear from the onset is that social media is only a tool used by people—what’s on social media reflects the people that use it.

“The society is composed of both good and evil people; it’s inevitable that you are going to get the same thing on social media. The media—social or traditional—have always had this symbiotic relationship with the society,” he says.

He adds that social media has opened a discursive space where ordinary citizens can talk about issues that matter to them—overturning the traditional top-down forms of communication.

But Kainja admits that while social media has enhanced democratic governance elsewhere—such as the 2012 Arab Spring that was attributed to the growing number in users of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp—the platforms have locally been hijacked by people with malicious intentions.

“One can find so many negative examples on how the social media has affected people’s live. Talk about cyber-bullying, spreading false rumours (sometimes malicious). People’s lives have been ruined via social media, we cannot dispute these facts. Yet, what matters in discussing this issue is not whether social media is good or evil because nobody wins the debate. It only gives opportunity to State regulators to pounce on free speech in the name of protecting vulnerable citizens,” he says.

However, another social media expert, Levi Kabwato, contends it is not easy to enforce morality on social media as posts are at the discretion of users.

“Social media are a mere reflection of what society is saying or doing at any particular moment. Previously, these thoughts were kept away from us because we had no way of accessing them. Nowadays, sharing information, regardless of content, has become the norm. We want other people to know what’s going on within and around us, and usually, we want to take credit for being the first ones with such information,” he says.

Kabwato argues it was difficult to define ethics of sharing information.

“Social media are meant to open societies and allow for the free flow of information. Any suggestion that negatively treats social media as an ill, not a symptom of society’s own thinking and feeling, is not only misplaced but threatens the very basis of freedom of expression itself,” he adds.

Kainja agrees: “There are no gatekeepers on social media to control what should and should not be discussed, as is often the case with traditional media. Social media is not limited to national boundaries, thus it has created an important space for global conversations where people can draw on experiences from elsewhere to enhance their own understanding.”

Indeed, social media may have eased communication among other benefits, but the emotional scars it has left on people like Naunje cannot be just wished away.