South Africa: A Stealthy Attempt At Censorship

opinion

Freedom of speech is a fundamental right recognised in our constitution. But that doesn't mean everyone has to allow that speech anywhere you want to make it.

You can stop your drunken uncle from uttering his racist rants at your festive dinner table. Commercial enterprises have the right to limit "speech" on their communication platforms if they feel that content is going to harm them, their customers or their investors.

Internet service providers (ISPs) give us a connection to the public internet. For most of us, who cannot afford to host our own web-servers, they also provide shared web servers or hardware. In exchange, we pay them to provide us with a communication platform so that we can exercise our freedom of speech. This is particularly important for activists and critics who might not otherwise have access to places where their points may be heard.

And that's where things get a bit messy.

Dr. Harris Steinman has published his CamCheck website on Hetzner South Africa's shared website hosting platform since 2009. This website focuses on false and exaggerated medical advertising claims. Since almost all public advertising of normal medicines is heavily regulated (and thus there is little to criticise), much of the CamCheck's attention is on Complementary or Alternative Medicines (CAM), over which there is virtually no regulation.

Steinman has also had significant success with complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The scamsters outed in such a manner are generally not particularly happy about this.

Albe Geldenhuys of USN is one advertiser who has been on the receiving end of a large number of adverse rulings from the ASA. According to the numerous articles about USN products on the Camcheck website, Geldenhuys has no proof of the claims made for his products, and when challenged merely changes the advertising slightly to make other equally evidence-free claims.

Steinman asked a pertinent question in response to years of proven false advertising: "Albe Geldenhuys of USN, a master scam artist?"

Rather than providing a reasoned response and actual proof that the claims in his advertisements are completely above board, Geldenhuys' response has been to issue an ISPA "Take-down" request, demanding that Hetzner take down Camcheck site content of which he does not approve - claiming that it is "unlawful" because it is "defamatory". The content of that take-down request is attached here.

Excerpt from:
South Africa: A Stealthy Attempt At Censorship