Malawi President Mutharika sternly warns social media abusers

President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika has warned individuals abusing social media by insulting others that the law will soon catch up with them.

Mutharika was speaking in Tuesday at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe when he summoned a group of Chinese contractors to brief him on progress Malawi’s Optic Fibre Project is making.

The group led by the Chinese Ambassador to Malawi Shi- Ting Wang assured President Mutharika that all is set for the commencement of the project which is set to increase Malawi access to the World Wide Web and improve access to internet.

While saying social media is a catalyst for national development, the Malawi leader was, quick to warn those that use the same to insult others that their days are numbered as their phones can be tracked if they spread hate messages or forged State documents.

The social media abuses included the distribution of nudes and child porn.

Mutharika noted with concern that some people use the internet to instigate pain and fear on innocent people, saying ppeople must not hide behind technology and think they are smart.

”ICT is now the way of life, the social media and the internet is here to stay, but it is sad that some people taking advantage of these critical tools to insult others, let me warn you that your days are number, very soon the law will catch up with and you will be brought to book, let’s use these tools with patriotism, integrity and high sense of responsibility,” warned the Malawi leader.

President Mutharika said accessible, reliable and affordable Information Communications and Telecommunications (ICT) infrastructure and services are critical towards the social and economic development of the nation.

He said the fibre backbone project will put Malawi on the new revolution in this digital era.

“In this digital age ICT services has a critical role in the social and economic development of any nation, its role in the development agenda is non negotiable,’’ said Mutharika.

The 23 million dollar project will officially launched on April 26 in Lilongwe, will be implemented by a leading ICT solutions and service provider Huawei.

According to Huawei Managing Director Wan Wei the project which will connect Malawi from Chitipa to Nsanje will be carried out in two years.

In the project ESCOM poles will used as a conduit.

WhatsApp, which uses end-to-end encryption, is by far the most popular social media platform for distribution of messages in Malawi.

Facebook is also very popular social media platform where most abuses are taking place including fake news.

Instragram and Twitter are still popular but there is less abuse in these platforms.

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