We are at the crossroads of a journey which will determine the future of media freedom and people driven social movements in Papua New Guinea. Social media is a reality that present and future governments have to understand, appreciate and deal with. However, all this will have to be a collective movement towards maturity with social media users also taking some responsibility. The manner in which the social media threat is handled will also determine the governments level of maturity. Are we going to attempt to censor? Censorship has never really worked. All censorship has a use by date. Are we going to attempt to impose laptop-related legislation (just an example) that tries to curb the activities of a tech-savvy generation of the future using handheld devices as the primary means of communication? Are we going to monitor Facebook while much of online activities migrate towards WhatsApp and other applications and other forums? The world isnt simple anymore. Yet many wish it were.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 02:31:02 +0000