SJD1501 ASSIGNMENT 06 2021.

SJD1501 ASSIGNMENT 06 2021. Social Dimensions Of Justice. The impact of social media on the constitutional right to privacy. Section 14 of the Constitution of South Africa states: Everyone has the right to privacy, which includes the right not to have— (a) their person or home searched; (b) their property searched; (c) their possessions seized; or (d) the privacy of their communications infringed. Social media is not only used to display and share aspects of our personal lives but our professional lives as well. With the rapid advancement of the different features of social media and increase of people who use social media it is almost correct to say that everyone uses some form of social media in their everyday lives in one way or another, whether it is just using Facebook or keeping up to date with the news or whether it is constantly using multiple apps such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and many more. It is also a problem that many young children use social media platforms and are therefore exposed to the harsh reality of the internet’s content as well as other people’s opinions that are sometimes, though cruel or advanced and can be considered cyber-bullying, are backed up by an individual’s right to freedom of expression granted by section 16 of the Constitution. The problem social media presents is that it gives people so many numerous platforms on which to share the very many aspects of their lives until almost nothing is kept secret anymore and then when the people who share so much online do express the right to have privacy, the public feels that they are somehow part of their lives already and feel entitled to know everything about them. The line between what people view as private and public information becomes blurred and may cause people to become angered or even begin to act slanderously and maliciously towards that person resulting in cyber-bullying. People therefore become confused or do not accept others’ want for privacy when they themselves or the other person has a history of consistently sharing their lives and information online, creating a false sense of entitlement and feeling that certain information is being withheld from them when in fact such information is none of their concern. This study source was downloaded by from CourseH on :33:50 GMT -05:00 This study resource was shared via CourseH However although there are many negative aspects of social media, there are great aspects too. As stated above, there are many platforms on which information is shared and allows more people today - access to important information than ever before. News can be broadcasted around the world within seconds because of these social media platforms and therefore reach many more people timeously than before when the only news outlets were television, the newspaper and radio. Important and or life threatening information such as extreme weather warnings can be sent out to warn people to find safety and shelter as well as information that affects us internationally such as terrorist attacks or information regarding fuel prices, as well as information regarding the crimes committed through the use of social media. Social media can be destructive in sharing personal information and therefore infringes people’s right to privacy but it is needed to share public information that concerns all people so that everyone is aware of the state of the world. We can therefore not get rid of social media but can develop legislation that deals with the very many crimes committed using social media such as deformation and the sharing of someone’s private information. Courts need to develop specific legislation that deals with the correct usage and the penalties of incorrect usage of social media and its various platforms as well as age restrictions concerning many of the sites so as to regulate the information spread online and penalise those who use social media to share private, harmful, illegal and malicious information