A recent WhatsApp feature update has caused concern among some of the popular chat app’s users over its potential legal ramifications for group admins in South Africa.
Last week, WhatsApp started rolling out a feature on the iOS version of its mobile app that lets group admins delete messages or multimedia shared by other members.
According to several recent reports from WABetaInfo, the company is also testing the feature on the WhatsApp Android app.
While it might seem like a harmless and even beneficial addition for those frustrated by people spamming groups with irrelevant or disruptive content, it has a more significant impact in South Africa.
The Digital Law Company social media expert Emma Sadleir recently published a video on social media explaining that group admins now have a greater responsibility to police content shared by other members.
Effectively, because admins are now able to delete messages from groups, they can be held legally liable for someone else sharing illegal content.
That could include hate speech, racism, incitement to violence, revenge porn, or child abuse imagery.
Sadleir told MyBroadband that South Africa’s case law had already established that people who can delete illegal content from an online platform but don’t do so, are legally responsible for it.
But one major problem is that the WhatsApp group “Delete for Everyone” feature is only available for two hours after the message or content is posted.
Some WhatsApp admins might be concerned that this would place an onerous duty on them to constantly and carefully monitor each member’s posts and evaluate them for possible illegalities quickly.
While it might be evident that some content is illegal, determining whether certain statements constitute defamation or incitement to violence might require interpretation by a legal expert.
Fortunately, Sadleir said South African law had the defence of “innocent dissemination.”
Stated simply, the defence argues that if you haven’t seen the content, you cannot be held responsible for it.
“If you’ve been away without signal, for example, you would benefit from the defence,” Sadleir said.
In addition, the group’s size could play an important role in this defence, particularly given that WhatsApp recently doubled the maximum number of members to 512.
“You may be able to benefit from this defence on the basis that there is so so much content you can’t be expected to read every word of every message,” Sadleir explained.
However, she warned if someone notified you of the message on the group, you would lose the defence of innocent dissemination and “step into the shoes” of the original publisher.
MyBroadband also asked Sadleir if deleting the content would not amount to destroying evidence.
She advised that admins take a screenshot before deletion to keep in the event that legal action is taken against the poster.
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