Newfound freedom guaranteed by the Government after the 16-year reign of the previous government has unleashed a malicious side of Fijians, according to lawyer Jon Apted.
He told the Pacific Fiber Conference and Training in Nadi that while the rules of behaviour and speech are well learned and understood in certain communities, there are no accepted norms on social media.
“There has been a large transformation in freedom of speech,” Mr Apted said.
“Platforms like Facebook, which is the most popular platform in Fiji, I have seen the proliferation of community pages, many versions like ChatFiji and other group pages where people participate.
“Much of the content on these pages are positive, religious messages, jokes and other stuff, but there is increasingly malicious content on these pages that are severely damaging to individuals.
“And a lot of this comes from our own culture.”
He said that in certain communities within Fiji there was a culture where freedom of speech was contextual.
“And the rules about speech are contextual. You can say certain things in the presence of certain kinds of people, and you can say certain things in the presence of other people. So, these rules are well learned and well understood.
“But when it comes to social media, there is no accepted norm and people suddenly don’t see anybody in front of them, although they are speaking to the world.
“So, they feel licensed to say all sorts of very personal things about other people and to share photographs and all sorts of things that are just horrific and invade privacy.”