New WhatsApp development allows group admins to delete members' posts

If you are an admin of a WhatsApp group, you now have the option to remove your members' posts and you could be held liable for unlawful messages.

Thabo Shole-Mashao spoke to social media law expert and chief executive officer at The Digital Law Company - Emma Sadleir about the new WhatsApp settings and their legal implications.

• WhatsApp group admins will have two days to delete the post of any member based on the new settings.

• If the admin sees the post and chooses not to remove it, they can be held legally liable.

Until recently, if something offensive or unlawful was being posted on a WhatsApp group, the only option available to the admin was to remove the person from the group.

However, WhatsApp is regularly updating its settings and one of their latest developments allows group admins to delete another member’s posts for everyone within two days of it being posted.

This gives admins the ability to better manage what posts are on a group, but also the responsibility for any unlawful posts that remain on the group.

Anybody who has the ability to stop content from being published is legally responsible for it.

Emma Sadleir, social media law expert and chief executive officer at The Digital Law Company

If unlawful content such as a defamatory or racist posts, for example, is posted on a WhatsApp group and an admin sees it and chooses not to remove it, they can be held liable for it if a legal case is opened.

The ability to delete others posts now includes WhatsApp in a well-established rule of South African law, according to Sadlier which states that someone is responsible for content posted if they had the ability to stop it from being published.

If you are just a member of the group but want to be dissociated from the content, Sadlier said your best options are either to vocally comment that you do not agree with the content or leave the group.

Listen to the audio above for more.

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