Czech Interior Minister broadcasts live on social media warning against spreading hate and lies, police are investigating calls for violence
Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan has decided to become an influencer. He has posted a video to his Facebook profile commenting on the current atmosphere among Romani people in society, calling for balance and caution when sharing information online.
The minister also warns against abusing freedom of speech to incite hate and violence. “This is a new discipline, I don’t absolutely yet know how to hold the smartphone and sit with it in my car, for example, and comment on current events or just talk because I’m in a bad mood, talk from my frustration. They say that’s how the so-called ‘lajfkaři‘ do this,” he begins his more than five-minute live broadcast before then starting to explain how dangerous it can be to disseminate hate and lies by broadcasting on Facebook in real time.
THE PHENOMENON OF THE FACEBOOK LIVE BROADCASTERS
The significant phenomenon of broadcasting live through Facebook is popular chiefly among poorer Romani people. The ‘lajfkaří’ are influencers in the Romani community who express their opinions about current events, mainly concerning Romani people, in their frequent broadcasts.
According to the minister, it is necessary, in today’s tense atmosphere, to verify allegations before we share them with others, because if we pass along a false alarm or a rumor, we are just turning up the heat, which can lead to violence. “Something that in the past would have just been an ordinary disagreement, or that would have sparked the usual kind of debate, which is basically desirable, can become a rumor today that can detonate a conflict and go so far as the commission of violence, and sometimes such rumors are even false alarms, and those false alarms can come exactly from this kind of live broadcaster,” Rakušan says in the video.
“It is necessary to verify any allegations before we pass them on, because if we pass on allegations about whether somebody has done something to someone, or about something that is allegedly guaranteed to have happened somewhere, we are just adding fuel to the fire, and doing that can actually lead to people taking what they believe is ‘justice’ into their own hands” the minister warned. He then called on anybody who witnesses a conflict to immediately call the police.
“That is the only place, the only number we should call if we have to address a situation of that kind,” the minister said. He also appealed to those making live broadcasts not to abuse them by organizing fighters to travel to various towns and stir up conflicts and intolerance there.
The minister said police are monitoring and also addressing hate speech and the spreading of defamatory allegations that can cause aggression in society. He added that words are an unbelievably powerful weapon and that not everybody knows how to handle them with sufficient thought.
“Freedom of speech has its limits. The law sets forth what they are, such as spreading a false alarm, or publicly inciting racial or other hatred. That’s not freedom of speech anymore, that’s breaking the law, that’s calling for violence, and the law in this country simply has to apply to everybody, wherever he or she comes from and whoever he or she is, the law in the Czech Republic has to apply the same to all, including to the live broadcaster who gets in his car in the morning, films a video, and sends it into the world,” Rakušan said.
In conclusion, the Interior Minister asked that we do our best to calm the atmosphere in society and said he believes the state has its own bodies to address the iniquities that actually happen in society. “Words are weapons, but words also know how to soothe, maybe we could begin using our words to start to calm the situation a bit. Have a good day. Beginning live broadcaster signing off,” Rakušan closes the video.
