Dear WITBANK NEWS readers
The purpose of using this social media tool is to actively engage with our audience, as well as provide a link to our website www.witbanknews.co.za. Any person who makes use of this publication’s online platform extensions* agrees to the following:
The publication, its websites, and its social media platforms, and all persons who utilise it are subject to the Constituti
on of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Any user who generates and publishes a comment or any other content on the paper’s online platforms agrees that:
No user may publish content that amounts to propaganda for war, incitement to imminent violence, advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender, or religion and that constitutes incitement to cause harm. No user may conduct himself in a way that unjustifiably infringes on a person’s basic human rights as set out in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights. No user-generated content posted onto this publication’s online platforms by members of the public reflects in any way the views of the publication or its employees. The media is not responsible for moderating UGC and can therefore not be held liable for the content posted by readers on its social media platforms and websites. Should users conduct themselves in ways that contravene the above, this publication is to be alerted as follows:
Members of the public must send an e-mail to [email protected]
In the e-mail, the content complained of must be included, as well as the details of the user who made the comment. Identify clearly the platform on which the comment was made as well as the date and time. Complainants must indicate whether the content is in breach of this UGC policy and, if so, in what manner. Once this publication has been made aware of the content complained of, it will evaluate whether the content constitutes a breach of its UGC policy. If the content is found to be a violation of the publication’s UGC policy, the comment complained of is to be deleted within a reasonable time. The publication’s decision is to be communicated to the complainant. The user who made the comment may be banned from the social media platform to which the content was posted.
*The extensions include but are not limited to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. How does POPIA affect the South African media? According to the South African Press Council’s website, the act indicates that media outlets that prescribe to an appropriate code of ethics must deal with personal information as the relevant code dictates. The South African Press Code is one example of such a code. Subscribers to the Press Code may therefore process and publish personal information as long as they do so for the purpose of lawful and ethical journalism.
