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A Zimbabwean TikToker has become the first person to be convicted under the new Data Protection laws.
David Kanduna (23) was arrested and convicted of cyberbullying a police officer. He has been asked to pay ZWL3,000 fines or go to jail for 20 days.
It is said that Kanduna recorded a video of a police officer being hoisted and jeered during skirmishes at Chinhoyi University of Technology. After that he then posted on WhatsApp and then on TikTok.
Under 164B of the Data Protection Act is how Kanduna was convicted:
Any person who unlawfully and intentionally by means of a computer or information system generates and sends any data message to another person, or posts on any material whatsoever on any electronic medium accessible by any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, threaten, bully or cause substantial emotional distress, or to degrade, humiliate or demean the person of another or to encourage a person to harm himself or herself, shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 10 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
Of course this will cause debate as fair questions can be asked about the ‘with the intent’ part. What content will be defined as intending to degrade and to what extent can content in public spaces be recorded and used even if for satire? And will satire based on content that is public spaces, edited for that effect be classified as cyberbullying?
From the report, it would appear as if there is no appeal but this, we think, is a matter that can be tested at law to ensure that there is no judicial overreach over free speech.
With information from New Zimbabwe
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