President John Mahama
There is something common among the various ethnic groupings in the country – decency in expressions.
Such values do not allow for the graphic description of sexual matters among others; expressions in this regard are clothed in alternative words to avoid obscenity.
Enter high-tech and its attendant appendages such as social media and hell breaks loose.
With smart phones in the possession of even senior high school students, social aberrations are being played out with reckless abandon.
Of all the iniquities which social media has birthed, none arguably surpasses hate speech; its ascendancy now a source of worry to persons who hitherto promoted it.
During President John Mahama’s engagement with the media recently, the subject came up when during his response to a question he bemoaned the anomaly. One thing which President Mahama said and, indisputably so, is the fact that there is no regulation to ensure decency prevails in the use of social media.
While we do not support the clampdown on free speech under which social media operates, we stand against the abuse of this privilege.
Both the previous and current governments have suffered undue fallouts from hate speech.
While the current government in a little over eight months of its being in power is suffering massive hate speech, their predecessors endured worst abuses but showed resilience.
Former President Akufo-Addo was vilified, insulted and even cursed on social media by persons he had neither seen nor even interacted with.
President Mahama is having his share of the anomaly and so nasty are some of the speeches we can only ask for intervention by the wise men of our nation. Some of the unidentifiable youth engaged in the hate speech frenzy do not appear to be ready to stop the attacks anytime soon.
When political interests maintain entrenched positions in matters of national interest, the outcome is the uncontrollable hate speech emergency and therefore prompting this commentary.
Just how can we regulate the use of social media to obviate instances of hate speech as being witnessed today without hindering free speech?
We have heard about a legislation in that direction being considered, but as to whether the desired impact would be realised or not is another thing.
It is unfortunate that the seed of hate speech was sowed by politicians who are in government today.
Kevin Taylor and others did a lot to nurture hate speech at the behest of politicians. Today, it has gone out of hands.
During the tenure of Nana Akufo-Addo, some female students in a school in the north posted a nasty video on social media capturing the attention of Ghanaians.
Perhaps if Kevin Taylor had not been encouraged to go on obnoxious tangent, we would not have reached this unenviable notch where presidents are subjected to unprintable vitriolic by persons young to be their children or even grandchildren.
Persons considered to be consciences of the nation, the church, Islamic leaders, civil society organisations have hardly commented on the rate at which hate speech is festering in the country.
The use of incendiary language such as hate speeches can lead to national security challenges. Herein lies the need to depoliticise this subject so a bipartisan approach can be applied to address it.