SA Facebook hate speech case to be heard in Equality Court

The Equality Court in Cape Town will hear argument in April on whether Afrikaans singer Sunette Bridges was aware of allegedly racist and hateful remarks being posted on her Facebook page.

Judge Siraj Desai on Tuesday directed that he would hear the matter between Bridges and the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on April 20.

Both parties would approach him in chambers on March 2 to inform him which witnesses they intended calling.

Desai had heard argument over whether he had the jurisdiction to hear the matter and whether Bridges could be held liable for third party comments on the internet.

Paul Kruger, for Bridges, argued that his client never saw the remarks in question and that it was impossible to moderate her pages around the clock.

He agreed that certain remarks on the pages were racist and offensive. He said his client regularly deleted content off her pages but that it was impossible to be aware of everything.

“What she says in her papers is that she denies any liability and she will state her case in court.”

Anton Katz, for the SAHRC, submitted that the responsibility lay with Bridges to moderate what was on her pages and that she had not formally distanced herself from the comments people had posted.

“Stand up. Be counted. That is what responsibility means,” Katz said.

Desai conceded that he was not very familiar with how Facebook worked, especially when it came to privacy settings, moderation, and creating and deleting posts.

He directed that Katz produce expert evidence at the hearing on the social networking site.

Kruger had said that one could not merely assume that his client was the creator and moderator of a number of pages under the name of Sunette Bridges.

He also said the SAHRC had not produced any evidence to prove that the bundles of Facebook pages it had printed out indeed originated from her Facebook pages.

“They are trying to hold Ms Bridges responsible for things and we don’t know what measures they took to ensure it was Ms Bridges.”

The SAHRC has accused Bridges of hosting apparently racial commentary on her Facebook page which constitutes hate speech in terms of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act of 2000.

It felt the commentary created an environment in which racist and hateful attitudes were allowed to flourish.

Bridges is the daughter of the late Afrikaans singer Bles Bridges.

According to Katz, she had two Facebook pages, one under her personal name and one entitled “Sunette Bridges News Page”, which focused on issues of concern to the conservative white Afrikaans community.

The court was briefly referred to a few remarks left in response to a post on the Sunette Bridges news page about farm attacks in Kwazulu-Natal.

Katz referred to a man who commented that he was a supporter of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

The man commented: “Suid Afrika het ‘n Hitler nodig maak hulle vrek!!!” [South Africa needs a Hitler kill them].

A woman on the same post commented: “Skiet die [goed] vrek— hulle is nie barbare nie want barbare is mense!!!!!” [Shoot the things dead – They are not barbarians because barbarians are people].

The SAHRC wanted Bridges to post an unconditional apology on her Facebook pages and remove the hate speech and harassment it had identified.

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