Smartphones17.01.2025

WhatsApp emojis that could land you in deep trouble in South Africa

Sending certain WhatsApp messages can land you in trouble with your employer or in jail in South Africa, and Legal Leaders managing director Aslam Moolla says South Africans should also be careful about sending emojis in work-related conversations.

Speaking to SABC News, Moolla, a labour lawyer, explained that emojis have different meanings. These meanings can vary based on context and per generation or cultural group.

“Emojis are symbols or pictures which have certain meanings to them. If we are going to use them, we have to accept that there could be consequences for using them,” he said.

Moreover, he explained that messages sent over any social media platform form documentary evidence that can be used as evidence at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), labour courts, or in disciplinary hearings.

Moolla gave the example of a manager sending a message to a worker requesting they be at work at 07:00 for an urgent meeting.

He explained that if you respond with a thumbs-up emoji, many people interpret that as agreeing to be at work for the meeting, while many others may interpret it as just an acknowledgement of the message.

“Unfortunately, we live in a digital era. You’ve got to be aware of how you say things at work. If you give a thumbs up or use certain fruit emojis, all those things, there are consequences to that,” said Moolla.

“Screenshots become evidence at the CCMA, labour court, and disciplinary hearings.”

He also warned that giving a thumbs-up in response to a contract or agreement could land you in a bind.

“An argument could be raised by the company or the person who offered you the contract to say; by the fact that you gave a thumbs up, there was what we call ‘a meeting of the minds’,” said Moolla.

“It’s up for the judge to decide.”

The blue-tick read-receipt mechanism on WhatsApp also poses potential problems in the workplace.

“If you have a blue tick, you’ve read a message, in my view, and I’ve used it in cases that constitute proof of acceptance or receipt of the message,” said Moolla.

“If you have blue ticks turned on, and for example, there’s a notice of a disciplinary hearing taking place on Friday. You have blue-ticked it on WhatsApp. You can’t say that you never got the message.”

He explained that a company could screenshot the blue ticks along with the time and submit it as evidence at the CCMA.

Aslam Moolla, South African labour lawyer and managing director at Legal Leaders

Possibly jail time for sending these messages

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed South Africa’s Cybercrimes Act into law in 2021, outlining three types of harmful messages that are criminal offences in the country.

The following types of messages have been criminalised in South Africa:

  • Those that incite violence or damage to property
  • Messages threatening people with violence or property damage
  • Messages that unlawfully contain intimate images.

On the latter, the Cybercrimes Act stipulates that an intimate image can be both real or stimulated.

This, therefore, includes “deepfakes”, where someone else’s face is superimposed onto a nude image, and sharing such an image is a criminal offence in South Africa.

The same applies if the person isn’t identifiable in the image but is identified in the text or in other information contained in the message.

The Cybercrimes Act defines “violence” as bodily harm and “damage to property” as damage inflicted on corporeal or incorporeal property.

It makes it an offence to send messages that threaten a person or group of people with violence or damage to their property.

The bill states that punishment for these offences includes a fine, imprisonment not exceeding five years, or a combination of both.

Subsequent convictions will land offenders with another fine, imprisonment not exceeding five years, or a combination of the two.

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