News
Invasive Photography
Speaker 1 00:00
Human rights experts are calling for an overhaul of discrimination laws in the wake of malicious non-consensual images shared online. Psychologist and human rights academic with dwarfism Deborah Keenahan says freedom of expression shouldn't take priority over people's privacy. National radio news reporter Emma Myers spoke with Dr. Keenahan about the nature of online abuse and why our discrimination laws need to change.
Speaker 2 00:29
We're talking about human rights. We're talking about people who are just trying to live their lives by simply walking down the street. I mean how can there be any form of justification for this sort of behaviour?
Speaker 3 00:47
Why do you think people assume that it's still appropriate to do this?
Speaker 2 00:55
I think the part of the issue is media representation doesn't help because all too often in the media there is the representation of people with the dwarfism again being mocked being treated as lesser than, being dehumanised. The other issue too is that with social media people can say things without awareness of the impact that their words have on people - and this is part of the dehumanisation, that the further removed you are from a person the easier it is to perform harmful behaviours that impact them because you are not aware, you do not see, you do not have the level of empathy to understand the impact that your actions have.
Speaker 3 01:58
Why do you think social media companies such as Matter aren't removing these groups entirely?
Speaker 2 02:07
That's what I would like to know too, because what is the benefit? Again, it would seem that certain words, certain actions towards certain people are deemed hate speech, and yet virtually those same actions, those same words directed at another group isn't defined as hate speech. There are certain groups that have seen it as acceptable punching bags. There is also a misperception in a lot of these areas, and people proclaim the concept of freedom of speech. Now, freedom of speech is a very important right, especially political opposition. It's absolutely essential.
However, when it comes to the aspect of human rights, it is not simply black and white. With rights comes responsibility, and if we are claiming a right for ourselves, then we are responsible for respecting the rights of others. In other words, everybody has equal rights. Human rights are based in freedom, freedom to do, freedom to be, freedom to have, and that is where the freedom of expression sits. But in the area of human rights, there is also the other aspect of freedom, and that is for people to have freedom from abuse, freedom from neglect, freedom from discrimination.
We're talking about people being able to live their lives safely. Now, the fact of the matter is no human right can trump another, but the most essential thing within the area of human rights is actually survival. When you have a behaviour that is actually endangering people, then I'm sorry, that freedom of expression does not take priority over people being able to simply walk down the street in peace.
Speaker 3 04:24
Do you think our discrimination policies or our human rights policies need to be revised to include safeguards for social media and what would you say to the communications minister given the chance?
Speaker 2 04:46
Clearly there needs to be some revision. There needs to be recognition of the capacity of these technologies to create a lot of harm. Again, are we talking about limiting certain behaves? The answer is Yes we are, yes we are. And the bottom line is, we need to think about what sort of a society do we wish to live in? What sort of civilisation do we want to have? We need to look after all members of our society. Not just those who can shout the loudest, not just those who have access to the technology and the capital to have a free reign over the welfare and wellbeing of others who do not have that.
Speaker 1 06:03
That was psychologist Dr. Debra Keenahan ending that report by National Radio News' Emma Myers.