Measures taken to deal with harmful online content pertaining to children, women and other vulnerable groups

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed everyone to the meeting and noted the apologies from Mr M Nhanha (DA, Eastern Cape), the Minister of Public Enterprises, Mr Pravin Gordhan, and the Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises, Mr Obed Bapela. He noted that Members might have difficulty with both the Minister and Deputy Minister not being present in the meeting. Members should recall that this was a busy period with the scheduled elections. He observed that today was also a Cabinet day, which required the Minister’s attendance.

He noted that the Deputy Minister had also communicated that he had already missed two Cabinet meetings to attend Committee meetings. Missing a third Cabinet meeting would adversely affect the Deputy Minister's performance agreement.

He called upon Members not to delve into unnecessary discussions and for the meeting to continue in its present form. The departmental officials and the Film and Publication Board (FPB) could answer the necessary questions.

He sought to hand over the meeting to Ms Zama Mkosi, Chairperson, FPB, but noted that if Ms Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani, Director-General (DG), Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) was present, she should first provide an overview.

Opening remarks by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies

Ms Jordan-Dyani said she was glad the Chairperson had explained the situation about the Minister and Deputy Minister. She stated that in the digital era, fake news and misinformation had become widespread and posed a serious danger to personal safety, even in South Africa. The FPB thus played an important role in identifying nuances about misinformation, how to recognise it and ultimately how to combat it.

She stated that the FPB legislative mandate had been broadened to focus on prohibition and enforcement mechanisms. On this matter, the FPB had formed a partnership with the security cluster in government. The platform provided by the Committee also served as an important information tool for the FPB to popularise their important work. These opportunities were few and far between.

One of the key responsibilities of the FPB was to ensure that educational content was disseminated to schools; another was that awareness of the dangers and vulnerabilities that online misinformation presented was enhanced. The FPB was also duty-bound to assist pensioners as they were easily susceptible to cybercrime and harmful online interactions.

Opening remarks by the Film and Publication Board

Ms Mkosi said that she was honoured to present to the Committee on the important work that the FPB conducted. There were not enough public opportunities for the FPB to speak about their important mandate. The FPB had been strengthened through partnerships with law enforcement entities. The presentation would also speak to the successes, challenges and important variables.

She stated that the FPB mandate had been extended to the legislative sphere and as such, the entity was now responsible for enforcing and monitoring online content. This extended mandate had not come with an increased budget allocation, despite a quadrupled increase in the workload. Despite these limitations, the FPB was committed to delivering on its mandate, even in an age of government austerity. To support the extended mandate, the FPB partnered with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to combat online misinformation as well.

The focus of the FPB was to protect vulnerable groups such as women and children. She was proud to be part of an entity that placed the well-being of women and children at the crux of its mandate and stated that no stone would be left unturned.

The FPB had noted the recent proliferation of online human rights abuses against women that violated the right to privacy. These victims had been tracked and assisted with psycho-social as well as legal support. Platforms guilty of causing these violations were also challenged to remove the harmful content.

Dr Mashilo Boloka, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), FPB, said that he was currently in Phalaborwa with the IEC on assignment. The two entities were working on a youth outreach campaign focused on online participation. He noted that the 2024 general elections will be fought online.

He stated that the youth were being engaged on harmful online content and misinformation. Fake news and harmful content were bound to feature as key factors during this election cycle. The FPB planned to spend the week in Phalaborwa raising awareness at tertiary institutions.

He noted that the United Kingdom and Canada had only recently passed their online safety mechanisms, whereas the United States of America was still without protective measures. South Africa was thus a leader in this field. The FPB mandate was important as it covered all of society.

Film and Publication Board presentation

Dr Boloka briefed the Committee on the newly assigned legislative mandate of the FPB.

He stated that current programmes included a children's protection unit and hotline, online gender-based abuse and victims support projects, elections free from fake news, and a youth online safety project delivered through the Online Safety Council.

Since April 2022, the FPB, had handled 15 cases referred by the South African Police Service (SAPS) for content analysis on child pornography with thousands of materials.

This contributed to the successful prosecution and conviction in two cases with one perpetrator having received a direct imprisonment sentence of 10 years and another having been sentenced to five life sentences for the creation, production, distribution, and possession of child pornography material.

Per provision in the Films and Publications Act, three perpetrators had been given five-year suspended sentences and fines. There were several ongoing cases on the court roll that still had to be finalised and the FPB was confident that these cases would end up in successful prosecutions.

(See attached presentation for further details)

Discussion

The Chairperson had connectivity issues and asked Ms T Modise (ANC, North West) to act as Acting Chairperson for the remainder of the meeting.

Ms L Bebee (ANC, KwaZulu-Natal) appreciated the detailed presentation and applauded the FPB for their good progress. She asked who else the FPB partnered with besides SAPS, seeing that reference was made to civil society organisations that worked on women’s and children’s rights issues. How many people have been prosecuted for online or digital violations?

Ms W Ngwenya (ANC, Gauteng) thanked the Department for the presentation. She recalled that the FPB had in 2023 raised a concern about the White Paper on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services and Online Content Safety. Had the FPB’s concerns been addressed by the DCDT? If not, what reasons had been advanced for the decision? Many countries had laws that offered protection to women, children, and consumers against harmful online content. Did South Africa have enough laws that allowed the same protection? Could the FPB provide clarity on whether they ran any educational awareness programmes on harmful online content in South Africa's poorest communities? Did the FBP have sufficient financial resources to administer its programmes? If so, how much did this financial allocation amount to?

The Chairperson welcomed the important presentation, especially since the Committee had not interacted with the FPB for a long time. He noted that the Committee understood that the DCDT oversaw several entities. He asked whether the FPB had liaised directly with provinces on province-specific issues and whether it had found expression in the FPB’s annual reports. Did the FPB have any international affiliations? Some reports were meant to be directed to the FPB had actually gone to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA). Had complainants actually confused the BCCSA with the FPB? If so, how had this been addressed? Had the FPB undertaken public awareness campaigns? If it had, to what extent had this been done? He noted that perhaps these interactions should include models of interactions, such as traditional and social media, as these might allow access to young people.

Responses

Ms Mkosi thanked Members for their inputs and said that the FPB's concerns about the White Paper were a work in progress. The White Paper had proposed a merger with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). The FPB was not amenable to this proposal, which had been brought to the DCDT’s attention. The FPB had continued to engage with the DCDT and ICASA on the yet to be finalised matter. She hoped that the respective parties would find common ground.

On provincial engagements, the FPB had provincial offices in most provinces. The various council members represented seven of the nine provinces and were also entrusted to conduct work in their prospective provinces. The FPB was committed towards reaching the most far-flung areas and had been proactive in the execution of its mandate.

On the FPB's international affiliations, the FPB's mandate spread across borders. Dr Boloka would provide further clarity on the affiliations.

Dr Boloka informed the Committee that the FPB had worked closely with the Department of Social Development and the Ministry of Women within the Presidency. The FPB hosted an annual Online Gender Based Violence Summit as well. This year's theme was Online Victims Support, 2023’s theme was Sextortion and the 2022 edition focused on Women in Sports. Online Victim Support had become necessary given the proliferation of videos that depicted women in a negative light.

On whether South Africa had laws which provided protection, he stated that South Africa had ample legislative frameworks. The challenge, however was that these were fragmented. Some were concentrated in social development, whereas others were within the justice cluster, especially those dealing with cyber crimes and sharing images without consent.

Strengthening of relations remained a challenge. Dr Boloka commented that if a matter fell within the FPB’s mandate, it should be referred to the FPB.

Regarding the FPB’s budget, R126 000 000.00 had been allocated for the 2022 to 2023 financial year. R103 000 000.00 of this was a DCDT grant. An additional R3 100 000.00 was also allocated towards the Child Protection Unit. The allocation to the Child Protection Unit covered the hotline and the salaries of the online content moderators. Currently, the FPB employs only three online content moderators who, by law, should take rest breaks due to the sensitive nature of their work. Capacity thus remained a challenge.

He stated that the FPB collaborated with local and international partners. Locally, the FPB had entered into discussions with the BCCSA, an ICASA-affiliated entity. Members had to take note that the BCCSA dealt with broadcasting complaints. Nevertheless, many social media platforms have veered into the broadcasting domain. The FPB had engaged the BCCSA in signing a memorandum of agreement. These discussions were ongoing.

65% of the FBP's work was around public awareness campaigns, like the one taking place with the IEC in Phalaborwa this week. Plans were also afoot to conduct campaigns at Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges. In 2022, outreach campaigns in the North West and Limpopo had been conducted. In 2023, the Free State and the Northern Cape had had their share, and in 2024 the Western Cape had been visited. The FBP was dedicated to these engagements and tried to make do with the budget at hand. There was also a dedicated team that engaged with universities.

On the arrests of suspects, several people had been arrested and convicted. The most prominent of these being the Gerhard Ackermann case. Other cases in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape had been enrolled, however the wheel of justice had been slow.

Regarding international affiliations, he noted that a group of English-speaking African countries had established the Harmonisation Group. The purpose of this group was the regulatory harmonisation of classification and online safety. There had been challenges with the harmonisation process, in particular due to the FPB’s counterparts in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana having not been conferred with legislative powers.

Adv Makhosazana Lindhorst, Regulatory Development and Enforcement Executive, FPB, noted that South Africa was part of the Global Online Safety International Regulators Network, which was the only global forum dedicated to supporting collaboration between online safety regulators. The Global Online Safety Regulators Network had brought together independent regulators that cooperated across jurisdictions. They did this through information sharing, best practice, expertise, and experiences. The forum also supported coherent and coordinated approaches to online safety issues. Member states were currently busy with regulatory mapping exercises.

On the issues of arrests and prosecutions, he stated that 15 cases had been referred for prosecution. Of these, two had been successfully prosecuted. The Gerhard Ackermann case was cited as one successful prosecution. About 40 arrests had been made on the distribution of content without FPB approval, particularly the illegal distribution of compact disks. Those implicated had been charged and fined. 401 non-compliant notices had been issued. Those implicated had been given the opportunity to correct their transgressions. These were mostly distributors who had failed to renew their licenses or operated without valid documentation.

The Acting Chairperson asked the FPB to name the provinces in which they had a presence. She also wanted to establish by when the FPB planned to open offices in all nine provinces.

Ms Mkosi responded by stating that the FPB had offices in Gauteng, the Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal. There were no plans to open additional provincial offices given the financial situation at hand. This situation had not deterred the FPB. Several outreach programmes across the country have been conducted. A nationwide partnership with the SAPS was in place; law enforcement officers from across the country were also being trained and nationwide raids had been conducted. The FPB also took its educational mandate very seriously and continued to expand in this field.

The Acting Chairperson then invited Ms Mkosi to make closing remarks for the FPB.

Closing remarks from the Film and Publication Board

Ms Mkosi thanked Members for the opportunity to present on the work that the FPB had undertaken. She commented that Members’ questions challenged the FPB to ensure its mandate reached all provinces.

The Chairperson thanked the FPB and the DCDT for their well-presented presentation. She then released them from the meeting.

Committee minutes

21 February 2024

The minutes of the meeting held on 21 February 2024 was adopted, with Ms Bebee moving for adoption and Ms Ngwenya seconding the adoption.

28 February 2024

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 February 2024 was adopted, with Ms Bebee moving for adoption and Ms Modise seconding the adoption.

Closing remarks by the Acting Chairperson

The Acting Chairperson thanked Members for their attendance at the very important meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.