The Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission is calling for collective action from relevant stakeholders to address cyberbullying, harassment, and hate speech on social media platforms.

In a statement, it says that cyberbullying violates a number of human rights, including the right to life, the right to privacy, and the right to live with dignity.

The Commission’s call comes in light of the incident where a member of the LGBTQI community and a social media influencer was allegedly subjected to bullying and relentless harassment on a public chat forum Facebook page on social media.

It is alleged that the victim was humiliated, threatened, and abused on this popular public chat forum by those commenting, some of whom were anonymous account holders.

The Commission is concerned that those managing public chat forums on social media are failing to moderate and control hate comments on their pages.

It says that the blame lies with the administrators of the public chat forum Facebook pages and those commenting, and they must face the full brunt of the law.

According to the Commission, Section 17(3)(b)(i) of the Constitution states that a law may limit, or authorize the limitation of free speech to protect the reputation, privacy, dignity, rights, or freedoms of other persons, including the right to be free from hate speech, whether directed against individuals or groups.

It adds that social media users must respect this.

The Commission has filed a complaint with both the Fiji Police Force and the Online Safety Commission to investigate this matter and hold the perpetrators accountable.

FBC News is trying to get comments from the Online Safety Commission and police.