Gov’t to amend cybercrime law as ‘onslaught’ on social media reaches worrisome levels

Attorney General Anil Nandlall said Tuesday night that social media is largely unregulated and individuals have been using this space to abuse others. As such, the government will seek to amend the cybercrime law this year in hopes of remedying the situation.

“Something has to be done about the use of social media as a weapon against the citizens of this country.

“It is the abuse of freedom of expression and a government cannot stand idly by in the face of such onslaught against its citizens,” Nandlall declared during his weekly ‘Issues in the News’ programme.

According to him, the government recognises that statements and publications on social media are causing considerable harm to citizens. As such, it is believed that social media must be better regulated.

To address this, the cybercrime law has been under review. And Nandlall said amendments to that law will be presented when the National Assembly returns from its current recess period. The recess should end in October.

Beyond those amendments, the Attorney General said the Law Reform Commission has been tasked with reviewing criminal procedure statutory provisions and proposing amendments allowing documents to be served easily to persons who reside overseas but use cyberspace to commit cybercrimes in Guyana.

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The Attorney General’s statements come a week after he affirmed that persons living overseas can be sued locally for defamatory social media posts.