Legal news and commentary from the offices of Simon Dippenaar
What to do if you are trashed on Tiktok Trashed on Tiktok? Insulted on Instagram? Excoriated on X? Social media platforms allow anyone to publish information with a few taps on a phone screen. While social media has facilitated unfettered freedom of expression, many people have fallen prey to the more nefarious side of these […]
What it means for your privacy Cybercrime is on the increase in every aspect of life. Hardly a day goes by without a news item about the latest ransomware attack. But there is one type of cybercrime that is decidedly egregious. Cyber abuse, particularly when it involves bullying, disclosure of intimate images, or threats of […]
What does the new Cybercrimes Act 2020 cover? We wrote recently about the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). The need for such privacy legislation came about because of the explosion in electronic storage of personal information over the past two decades. Historically, personal information was held mostly by financial services companies, in paper records. […]
How to deal with false or libellous online business reviews For years, large corporates treated their customers like playthings. Consumers have suffered exorbitant bank charges, uncompetitive cell phone rates, and exploitation in all manner of goods and services because, unless they banded together and became a collective voice, they were powerless against the might of […]
While South Africa and the UK have experienced COVID-19 and lockdown differently, some of the consequences have been as global as the pandemic itself. We may not have the same number of children in care homes, but our children and adolescents face the same risks from online predators. With children spending more time online, and […]
Both disinformation and misinformation can cause harm, but one is intentional Donald Trump may have coined the expression “fake news”, but the concept has been around a lot longer. From free airline tickets offered on Facebook to cures for COVID-19 circulating on WhatsApp, unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve probably been the recipient […]
Cyberbullying is not just a problem overseas Cyberbullying is on the increase, despite the rise in awareness of the problem and the emergence of new strategies and agencies to combat it. Reports of suicides induced by cyberbullying are common around the world, and South Africa is not immune. In February, a grade 6 learner in […]
