South Africans arrested, fined, and fired for posts on social media

Punishments for sharing inappropriate posts on social media in South Africa, even if you aren’t the original poster, could include arrest, fines, and serious employment consequences.

Some individuals have been slapped with hefty fines for using racial slurs in text messages, while others, including children, have been arrested.

This is according to social media lawyer Emma Sadleir, who told 702 that South African law is catching up and actively punishing offenders who share inappropriate posts with weekly arrests.

“Anyone who shares is really responsible for it,” says Sadleir. “We’re not just looking at the original creator.”

“The law has been playing catch-up for the last decade, but what I’m seeing is arrests taking place on a weekly basis.”

This means anyone who reposts a tweet or a Facebook post could face consequences.

“If they’re sharing in a vacuum, we’ve got to presume that they agree with the original content, and we have seen many social media users taken to task either using the law or disciplinary mechanisms,” adds Sadleir.

She provided several examples of cases in which individuals faced hefty fines and civil damages.

One individual was fined R500,000 for using racial slurs in text messages. The case was heard in May 2024, with complainants accusing a man of using a highly inflammatory and derogatory epithet for black people in text messages.

The accused argued that the case had no merit and that it was merely to delay his litigation against the complainants.

He later admitted to using the word but argued that he used it in the sense that it means disbeliever in God, and that it was not racially charged.

“We’ve just seen a very big payout in the Cape High Court in a defamation case against a pub where somebody called the pub racists,” said Sadleir. “That was over R1 million in damages.”

This likely refers to Hank’s Olde Irish Tavern, which was falsely accused of denying entry to a young man because of his race.

Sadleir also referred to a case relating to revenge porn, where someone’s former partner shared explicit content of them on Facebook without consent.

“It was over R4 million in damages. So we’re seeing much bigger damages awarded,” she said.

Sadleir said they were even seeing children being arrested on a weekly basis because of content shared on social media.

She warned that most of the activity was happening in employment law, where people are fired or disciplined due to their social media activity.

Sadleir believes social media users have figured out that someone could face employment consequences for inappropriate or controversial social media posts.

“They see somebody with a very controversial or illegal opinion, put a lot of pressure on the employer,” said Sadleir.

“Therefore, the employer’s reputation takes a knock because of what an employee has said in their so-called personal capacity. I don’t believe there is such a thing as personal capacity,” she stated.

Sadleir also referenced a case out of KwaZulu-Natal a few years ago, where an individual commented on an article calling for the killing of white people.

“It was after hours on a Saturday night from his personal phone, in his personal capacity. He’d never had any access to tech at work, and he was fired,” she said.

In his defence before the Council for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) and the labour court, he argued that the post was in his personal capacity.

However, the court said there is no such thing.

He also argued that the company’s social media policy should not apply to him as he had never been trained in it.

“The court just said it’s modern-day South Africa. You don’t need to be taught not to be racist,” explained Sadleir.

She warned that South Africans should take care what they say online.

“You are who you are in the real world when you go online,” said Sadleir.