Social Media: "The Modern Prosecutor"

Social Media: The Modern
Prosecutor

As I entered the courtroom that was now fully packed, I sat pensively at the only remaining seat, careful not to cause a disruption and just at vantage point, where I could not miss to catch a glimpse of the meticulously dressed lawyers from the defense side and the prosecution team, as they firmly but respectfully made their submissions.

It was my first time in court, a young boy in primary school with great dreams, here to satisfy my curiosity and get a feeling of how my future life would look like, my childhood dream had been to practice law and become the greatest barrister ever, the one and only one the world would have (Never mind, several years later, that never happened and I am currently in a totally different field).

Back to the courtroom, and my attention now drawn to the prosecution team led by middle aged man who spoke slowly, but with lots of authority and each time he spoke, he kept on referring to the words "My Lord, my team is purely guided by facts and evidence with the public interest at heart" he also made reference to the words "Ours is to ensure that a just verdict is reached at the end of this trial process" several years later, I came to realize that a prosecutor does not have a client and always acts in the public interest.

Same is the case today, whenever I watch court proceedings, the prosecution team always argues and focuses their attention to a just verdict. This makes the prosecution team, viewed as the number one channel through which, a justice is guaranteed in a proceeding and a just verdict is reached at. Whilst this is true, several cases of unfair verdict due to lack of evidence or poorly presented facts from the prosecution team have been reported and many a times, appeals made in a higher court, appeals that have gone to deliver a fresh and different verdict.

The rise of social media platforms especially Facebook and Twitter, has brought different dimensions on court proceedings of public interest, that has seen trending topics relevant to the proceedings generated through hashtags on twitter where the public have their say and express their views and through facebook updates that give users space and opportunity to publicly air their views on the proceedings and verdicts. This has led to social media indirectly having a say on a court verdict, as interest groups, scholars, lawyers, teachers of the law have a wider platform where they critique and offer their views and opinions on the verdict. This indirectly puts pressure to the prosecution team to up their game or face a public backlash.

The power of hashtags

Twitter for instance, plays a major role using #hashtags where users freely air their views. The hashtags have in the past used to push for justice and raise social injustices that are happening, forcing governments to give official response. It's through such social media pressure  that prosecutions have been made, rallies for justice have been called and government agencies have been forced to look into the concerns raised through the hashtag.

An example of pressure from social media that has forced government action in Kenya is recently, is a case where the Kenyan government was forced to arrest and deport Africa's biggest musicians arguably, Congolese singer Koffi Olomide after he was filmed kicking a woman believed to be one of his dancers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) upon his arrival. With hashtags #BoycottKoffiOlomide, users urged the government to cancel his shows as well as urging revellers to boycott the much hyped show. Another hashtag #ArrestKoffiOlomide saw users demanding his immediate arrest and true to it, later that evening the musician was arrested after an interview with a local television. Once he was arrested, users began another hashtag #DeportKoffiOlomide which saw the artist deported out of the country to his homeland.

TT - Trending Topics are
 discussed through hashtags

This is just one example of how powerful social media has become, which begs the question. Is Social Media, The Modern Prosecutor?  fighting for justice in the view of the public interest?

It's the power of Social Media that has seen governments closing social media sites during elections, for fear of unknown impact, during the vote process or once the final results are announced;or during examinations such as in Ethiopia, where the government was forced to close the sites due to examination leaks. Such is the power of social media!

Is Social Media Then The Ultimate Public Defender? 

Many arguments can be fronted in support or objection of the above. Very interesting is the fact that social media can have such great influence in the modern day justice system and even appear to be more reliable on a just verdict than the normal judicial system that has lost credibility.

So where is the fault? Why can't social media grow into a trusted main powerhouse prosecutor? The answer is here bloggers!  Yes bloggers are the main issue. You see, social media influencers who have massive cult like flowers, have developed a certain level of trust with their followers, such that whatever they post/write, becomes the gospel truth to their followers. The negative impact of this trend, is when a blogger/social media influencer is compromised. The bloggers form/create #Hashtags that trend and their followers will always jump in to give their views, and they are rewarded with a retweet by the said blogger, which almost certainly guarantees retweets from other users thereby making that particular user feel proud.

Rivalry between bloggers is also another blow to the social media justice system. A blogger, pushing for a just course, using a particular hashtag, will certainly be countered with another hashtag, by a different rival blogger, just for supremacy case, thereby defeating the purpose of the cause.

Government agencies, have also been reported to be employing the services of rival bloggers to thwart causes being pushed by other bloggers with counter - hashtags. For instance, in cases where a certain blogger begins to push for accountability say from the security system, citing failures and incidents of insecurity, rival bloggers may be engaged to do damage control.

Another failure of social media justice is when bloggers are used to settle scores by rival corporate institutions, disgruntled entrepreneurs who misses out on tenders ("tenderpreneurs") etc.,

However you view it, social media is certainly a major player in the current justice system. That's why players in the business industry will rush to hire the services of online bloggers and sponsor #hashtags to counter a trending topic that is considered hazardous to their brand or future engagements. Business industry players are very conscious of the fact that social media will always keep their products on check or face the wrath of the online users who are supposed to be their target customers.

Supermarket chains have also not been left behind, one of Kenya's leading supermarket chain, found itself in trouble after a consumer detected somewhat of a fraud/scam game going on with the tellers. The customer posted the receipt used to purchase products and the price tags on the shelves which had a variation, the receipt price being more than the shelve price. The management of the supermarket chain had to immediately recall all customers who had such cases and promised to investigate into the matter. This was after users generated a #Hashtag demanding the management to take action or face a boycott.

Learning institutions have also faced the social media wrath. A case example was when a social media user posted a video of teachers from a local girl school taking turns to cane some girls as a form of punishment. Social Media users demanded immediate interdiction of the teachers as corporal punishment is against the Kenyan law. Officials from the ministry of education had to issue an official statement promising to look into the incident.

Writer's view:-

Social Media can become the ultimate public defender and prosecutor if users and bloggers are not compromised. This can be done by users themselves, avoiding #hashtags that do not support a just cause, or using such hashtags to support the just cause.

Users should consider having follow up hashtags to causes that different affected parties promise to carry out investigations or look into. For instance, such as the case of  the scam in supermarket, a follow up hashtag should be created to make a follow up on the matter to a conclusion and a hashtag congratulating the positive actions taken by the management.

It's time different players in all industries invested heavily on social media just to ensure all concerns raised are well taken care of , before their brands are damaged and a negative image portrayed which may lead to a draw back on their vision and goals.

Is Social Media the Modern Prosecutor? Be the Judge!!