Spain’s technophobic government
Spain’s ruling Popular Party has presented a non-binding motion in Congress aimed at bolstering the country’s anti-defamation legislation on the social networks. Once again, the government reveals its fear of what they insist in calling “new technologies”, from which we need to be protected by more laws.
Spain’s current anti-defamation legislation is already bordering on the paranoid: I say this as somebody brought before the courts some time ago for allegedly defaming a group of companies (who, needless to say, were not concerned about being defamed, but simply trying to shut me up). Attempting to bolster it further smacks of censorship, of equipping the state with the powers of Turkey under Erdoğan, allowing the courts to throw people in jail for speaking their mind or simply exercising bad manners.
I am deeply worried about a law that makes it easier to punish people who insult others on the social networks, and not because I like insults or because I people who insult others should be protected, but because I think we are already sufficiently protected, and that anybody who feels they have been defamed has more than enough legal resources at their disposal. The majority of modern democracies are not moving ahead with legislation to control the social networks. The countries doing so are Turkey, Iran or China. I wonder why…
Bad behavior and bad taste are undoubtedly a problem on the social networks. As I have said many times, it takes time for people to learn how to use certain new technologies. For some reason, a part of society has decided to ignore the rules that society has worked over time to regulate our behavior and prevent us from coming to blows. But we already have laws to deal with wrongdoers.
Sure, sincerity is overrated. We may think somebody is an idiot, but there is no need to say it public, and on most occasions, we don’t. Why? Because nobody wants to be told they’re an idiot. An insult is an insult, whether in a newspaper in a traffic jam or in a bar. The internet is no different. We don’t need special legislation to limit and control what people do on it. Down that road lies censorship.
These efforts to bolster anti-defamation legislation are simply a way of equipping ourselves with the tools to prosecute those who disagree with us, and are a confused way to raise entry barriers and that manners can be enforced by punishment. Let’s be honest, Spain’s jails are already full to overflowing, and we don’t need to stick more people behind bars thanks to new laws.
As said, I am seriously concerned that this country’s government still sees technology as a potential threat. When will the Popular Party start seeing the social networks as a way to tap into popular opinion, or as a way of communicating with people, like the Obama administration has so successfully done? Is the United States obsessed with new laws to further protect people against defamation? Surely it should be the other way round, that our governments should be obsessed with protecting freedom of expression?
Where does the Popular Party’s obsession with protecting us from the internet come from, and what does it tell us about how it feels about the rapid technological change sweeping our societies? Someone should explain the Popular Party that the best way to protect one’s honor is to act consistently in an honorable way…
(En español, aquí)
