When we talk about human rights in today's world, we don’t just talk about what we are permitted to do and not do, we also talk about how we are permitted to react to whatever comes our way. For example, murder is a crime, but self defence justifies it. This just shows the reason there is a law in our society. When we come into the online space, it’s the same thing. Web2 Social media platforms have policies which can be seen as laws, and if violated can cause one to lose an account. But also this is why there are fundamental human rights everyone equally has. And unlike the real world, I think it’s a bit fair in the online world as it is most times no respecter of personality and hardly offers special privileges not in the books. But not in all cases though as I know of a few exceptions. This shows that not everything is fair both online and offline, but I think everyone deserves a right when clear policies are in place.
For a start, everyone has the right to be on social media and post whatever they wish. But that is as long as it is in line with the social media’s posting policies. Everyone also has the right to view whatever content they feel like viewing on social media whether inappropriate or not. But this would also have an exception to children who of course can not be on social media directly unless at the age of 13 at least with parental guidance to control their activities. So I guess it's safe to say that social media is more like the real world with its own pros and cons. I could wake up tomorrow and decide to post whatever I wish, as long as it doesn't deprive someone else of their own rights, it's fair to say I'm safe. When I talk about depriving a person of their rights, I'm referring to doing something that would directly harm a person.
It's wrong to intentionally post things directly targeted at people for the purpose of making them feel bad for who they are. The same way it's wrong to just walk up to a person and slap them because you think they deserve it for being black, white, Fat or Slim. It's wrong to call someone out on social media to slander them and make them look bad to others just because you have a wrong opinion of them. If one can be sued for defamation in real life for such actions, it would certainly apply if the authorities get hold of a person who does that from the comfort of their home. It's wrong to intentionally tell lies for selfish gains on social media which results in misleading others, over time we have seen accounts who are involved in such get banned because it violates human rights. These days it's becoming more of an eye opener that some people are doing and saying things they can't say in real life on social media using it as a tool to violate the rights of others but little by little, social media authorities create mediums to apprehend such accounts.
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Celebrities are mostly the victims here, and anyone who makes headlines gets backlashes someway or another by people known as trolls whose job is to hate on people for no just reason. They usually don't have the guts to say the things they say in real life, so they say on social media where they feel no one can touch them and they can go scout free. These are the kind of people that abuse their rights, but social media is a place of many faces. It's easy to open another account with a new name and continue the troll. These are the kind of people that should be thrown off social media, if there was something like a social media prison or a way to make sure such a person doesn't come into social media again, then it would be great and not be considered as a right violation but rather a consequence of right abuse. If someone has not abused their rights to be on social media, then why stop them if it's not oppression.
