Social media and the Spur fight, local lawyer weighs in

THE video of a man and woman fighting at the Texamo Spur at the Glen Shopping Centre which went viral has seen a plethora of differing perspectives on who is right and who was wrong. There have been differing views on social media users comments that range from racist to defamatory to the downright criminal.

Northglen News caught up with Verlie Oosthuizen, a social media law expert at Shepstone & Wylie Attorneys in uMhlanga, to gain clarity about the issue.

1. What are the implications about showing children’s faces in the video?

“In the near future the sharing of images of children will be regulated in terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act. Currently this act has not been fully promulgated and so there is no legislation dealing with it currently. Unfortunately the images have gone viral which makes it very difficult to deal with but the parents could have asked the social media platforms to take the images down.”

2.So many people have shared the video, how can I be implicated if I am one of more than 1000 people sharing it?

“It is unlikely that you would be in criminal trouble or that you would be sued by the roleplayers, however as a general rule if you share unsavoury videos you could get into trouble from your employer or school. It is not just your reputation that you have to protect online, it is also the reputation of your employer, your family, your church and clubs etc.  The wrongdoers in the video could face serious consequences.

“It would probably be difficult for them to get any real relief from suing anyone in this matter.  It would be an expensive legal process and the problem may be that the person has the defence of the situation being “the truth and for the public benefit”. If anybody began to harass the people featured as a result of this video they may be able to approach the Magistrates’ Court for a Prevention of harassment order.”

3. Has social media exacerbated issues like this?

“Without a doubt, this is a new information age and issues like this would not have been exposed a few years ago.  The problem is that everybody wants to have a say about these videos and the people who are actually exposed online have to deal with the fall out which can become very distressing. The people who share the video and comment about it can get on with their lives easily.”

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