Pope Francis, free speech and social media

March for the Martyrs photo By Fr. Shay Cullen, Founder since 1974 When Pope Francis arrived in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world, he had a message of peace, dialogue and tolerance between religions and a warning against extremism. In recent years, religious rivalry gave rise to extremism that distorted religious beliefs through “deception and violence.” Much of that deception has been and is through social media platforms under the guise of “freedom of speech” and has fomented hatred and violence. Pope Francis said that inter- religious dialogue is the way to counter intolerance and extremism. He said powerfully, "There are times when faith in God is, sadly, manipulated to foment divisions and increase hatred instead of furthering peace, communion, dialogue, respect, cooperation and fraternity." Much of the manipulation and distortion of faith, truth and gross immorality is spread by social media and presented as an exercise of “freedom of speech.” He said in the past that on-line media outlets that live off propaganda are “dirty media outlet(s) that soils the minds of the young and the old.” Authorities are acting to curb the extremism and manipulation of the truth on social media platforms and to curb hate speech and child abuse crimes over the Internet. On a previous occasion, speaking in reference to the Muslim Faith, Pope Francis said that fundamental human rights of freedom of speech and freedom of faith must be respected but never abused. “One cannot (use “freedom of speech” to) provoke, one cannot insult other people's faith, one cannot make fun of faith,” he said. There is a limit,” he said. The fundamental right to the liberty of expression comes with the obligation and duty to always speak for the “Common Good,” he said. The right to freely express one’s opinion, one’s thoughts and speak the truth to power is a most sacred and fundamental right cherished and protected by freedom defenders everywhere. It is a right established by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is in most constitutions. It is a right to be exercised, especially through freedom of the press, without fear of retaliation or punishment or censorship by the government. Many journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed in exercising that freedom to publish the truth. Pope Francis was restating the truth that the freedom of expression is not absolute and does not allow people to manipulate the truth, spread fake news, incite hatred, intolerance, violence and extremism. There are some owners of US social media platforms that believe that the US Law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, that “provides limited federal immunity to providers and users of interactive computer services”, is a green light for all online publishing. However, the EU Digital Services Act of 2024 does not recognize section 230 as a free pass for digital platforms. The precious value “freedom of speech” is distorted and abused by some on social media and can collide and clash with other rights like the protection of freedom of religion, privacy, morality, child rights and human dignity. Reputations can be violated by online crimes such as libel, slander, theft of intellectual property, pornography, extortion, child abuse images, obscenity, streaming child sex abuse or inciting violence endangering the public. Some owners of social media platforms allow some of these crimes on their platforms in the name of freedom of speech. Their subscribers in some countries can advocate racism, religious hatred, intolerance, extremism and spread discrimination, misogyny and racism. Some use the platform to incite violence and extremism as happened recently in the UK. Although all these crimes are forbidden by law, it is flouted and ignored by the Philippine telecommunication Internet service providers that consider themselves above the law. The CEOs of these companies could be arrested in Europe like Pavel Durov, billionaire owner of Telegram. Some owners of social media platforms and Internet service Providers (ISPs) allow and encourage these illegal activities in the name of “freedom of speech.” They earn huge amounts of money doing so. Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist,” as the owner of X (formerly Twitter), is in conflict with the judiciary of Brazil. Recently, a panel of Supreme Court justices supported their fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes, in ordering the blocking of Elon Musk’s X platform in Brazil. The judge levied a daily fine of US$9000 against X until Musk obeys the law and appoints a country representative and removes hateful and extreme, right-wing content. Musk claims to be a “Free Speech Absolutist” and responded with insults and claimed the court decision was a violation of free speech. The billionaire owner and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, 39, a Russian national with dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship was arrested in France and is being charged under EU law for allowing crimes like child pornography, trafficking fraud, drug sales, hate speech, and many more on his platform. The European Union has a strong law, The Digital Services Act of February 2024. It prohibits all such offensive postings under which Pavel Durov of Telegram was arrested and may be prosecuted. The act will hold these platforms legally liable for their users’ unlawful behavior if they are aware of illegal content. Such ‘content’ includes child sexual abuse material, terrorist content, illegal hate speech or illegal goods and services. In the United States, politicians in 19 states have responded to the abusive content on social media and websites in recent years by passing laws to protect children from getting access to the shocking explicit web sites like Pornhub- the fourth most popular website on Earth, some say. The US States are demanding that visitors to web sites like Pornhub show a government ID card every time the customer checks in. The response of Pornhub has been to close down all access to their websites to everyone. New proposed legislation in Europe, Australia, the United States and some Asian countries are going to demand that minors show government-issued age verification IDs to access certain social media platforms That may protect children but it will not stop the live streaming of children being abused online. That needs strong enforcement of the Anti-OSAEC law, which the Philippines is lacking.