The Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission has lodged a complaint with the Police and the Online Safety Commission to investigate the death of a social media influencer who allegedly committed suicide after enduring bullying and relentless harassment on a public Facebook chat forum.
The Commission is urging collective action from relevant stakeholders to combat cyberbullying, harassment, and hate speech on social media platforms following the news that a member of the LGBTI community and social media influencer was allegedly driven to suicide by online bullying.
“Cyberbullying violates several human rights including the right to life, privacy, and to live with dignity,” said the Commission chairperson. “It is alleged that the deceased was humiliated, threatened, and abused on this popular public chat forum by commenters, some of whom were anonymous account holders. The Commission is concerned that those managing these forums are failing to moderate and control hate comments on their pages.
“The responsibility lies with the administrators of the public chat forum Facebook pages and the commenters, and they must face the full extent of the law. Freedom of speech carries ‘responsibility’ and has limitations. Section 17 (3)(b)(i) of the Constitution of the Republic of Fiji states that a law may limit or authorize the limitation of free speech to protect reputation, privacy, dignity, rights, or freedoms of others, including the right to be free from hate speech, whether directed against individuals or groups. Social media users must respect this.
“Section 26 (3)(a) of the Constitution further states that a person must not be unfairly discriminated against, directly or indirectly, based on their actual or supposed personal characteristics or circumstances, including gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression.”