Bloggers must not be allowed to shout 'fire' in crowded buildings

“A lie travels halfway the world before truth has had a chance to put its trousers on...” – Winston Churchill

When British statesman and wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill made the wry comment about the lightening speed of lies versus the slower and more measured movement of truth; bloggers and other pseudo-journalists of today were non-existent.

If Churchill were alive today, one wonders with bated breathe, what the great orator would have made of the now eerie world of bloggers and social media that has turned out to be the archetypal two-faced Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of modern day communication.

Chances are that Churchill would have concurred with the views of writer Andrew Lam who, in an article denouncing the excesses of social media, wrote “the power of social media, now open to all, means even fools can cause chaos in far-flung places with only an ill-made incendiary video...”

Case in point? Flashback to the events of September 11, 2012 where a “manufactured” video was posted online and ignited street protests and demonstrations in the Middle East and North Africa leading to death of over 50 innocent people and injury to hundreds.

There is information that the attack on US embassy in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the killing of US ambassador and several embassy officials, was connected to the protests ignited by the video. The video in question was 13-minute amateurish production by ex-convict Nakoula Basseley Nakoula who was then living in the US. The video, posted on YouTube in July 2012 was deliberately meant to provoke Muslim wrath. And provoke it did.

When he posted the video online, Nakoula did so using a fake Jewish name “Sam Bacile” and went ahead to falsely claim that the video was allegedly financed via donations given by Jewish financiers totalling $5 million.

As would have been expected, the video went viral and so did Muslim anger. Violent demonstrations broke out throughout Muslim world leading to deaths, injuries and massive destruction of property. Who should have been held responsible for these deaths and destruction?

Did Nakoula’s right to freedom of expression grant him the right to make and post online an inflammatory video in a move that was equivalent to falsely shouting “fire!” in a crowded building?

In the Information Age that we live in today, anyone with a smart phone can start an incendiary rumour complete with “photoshopped” images as “proof” and by the time the world learns it was a lie, lives and property have been lost.

Here in Kenya we have seen bloggers post online wild and unsubstantiated claims against personalities and institutions. A blogger with say 5,000 followers has potential ability to influence huge chunks of society; either positively or negatively depending on his or her online postings. Having that kind of potential influence should come with a sense of responsibility and accountability the same way it is expected of old media because of its potential to influence.

Conversational Old Media, that is—newspapers, TV and FM stations—operate under a well-established and known Code of Ethics as well as professional and legal regime. But the same cannot be said about the laissez-faire operations of New Media and its gurus; the bloggers. Unfortunately, many of the purveyors of new media are yet to realise that the spaces they occupy cease from being personal spaces once they reach a certain threshold of followers.

Before the Bloggers Association of Kenya starts accusing the Government of violating bloggers’ freedom of speech, the association should tell the world what measures it has put in place to ensure that bloggers—especially those with thousands of followers—do not misuse the public spaces they occupy to shout “fire!” in crowded buildings in the name of freedom of speech.

As the late US activist, Malcolm X once said “The media (both old and new) is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and make the guilty innocent...” This statement holds true for bloggers too. Time has come for the purveyors of New Media to act responsibly commensurate with the spaces they occupy in public.