Independent Senator Paul Richards says T&T cannot survive a blow to the credibility of its election process.
He made the comment on Monday after raising a motion on the need for legislative reform to address risks posed by the misuse of social media in light of the general elections due in 2025.
During his presentation, Richards noted that the proliferation of social media platforms as well as political actors and malicious entities had allowed for the manipulation of public opinion and voter behaviour. In underscoring his call for legislative changes, Richards referenced instances of documented interference utilising social media
“Persons and agents advance their own political agendas, undermining the trust in democracy and democratic process, undermining cohesion in the country, destabilising countries, influencing specific target audiences to obtain elections around the world, particularly in developing countries, undermining the electoral process, hacking management systems, disinformation about the election results,” he said.
Richards also said there had been instances where social media was weaponised to spread misinformation and incite hate and violence. He insisted T&T’s election process could not afford to be weakened.
He said, “These bots and trolls and algorithms can influence the will and ability of voters through disinformation of voting procedures and undermining the very will to vote. They influence the political preference of voting in some instances, hacking political organisations, leaking stolen information and targeting certain groups.
“I don’t think this country can easily survive a blow to the democracy of the electoral process, we have so many attacks on our institutions and a blow to the credibility of that process is going to put us back in decades.”
He further noted that the erosion of institutions could debilitate the country’s democracy.
However, responding to matters on the adjournment, Communications Minister, Symon De Nobriga, noted that legislation was not the only response to social media abuse and misuse and that several factors, including the freedom of speech, must be considered.
“The crafting of the legislation would have to be done while also jealously guarding both the freedom of the press and freedom of expression and may also require a constitutional or special majority,” De Nobriga said.
He assured that he would engage in talks on the matter with both the Minister of Digital Transformation, Hassel Bacchus and the Attorney General to ventilate the concerns raised.