by Linda Straker
- Describes social media as place where people bully and abuse others and engage in rampant repeated defamation of people’s characters
- Suggests society should have laws and regulations in place to protect people
- PM suggests leaders of varying sectors contribute to fighting downside of social media
Describing social media as a place where people not only bully and abuse others but also engage in rampant, repeated defamation of people’s characters, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell is recommending that Grenada and other Caribbean nations enact laws and regulations focusing on the downside of the internet space.
“We have to push back against this because you see even some of the advanced countries recognise the risk with an uncontrolled, unfiltered social media internet space and the risk associated with how that could fundamentally undermine the kind of society we have and the cohesiveness in the society,” he said.
“We here in the Caribbean have to be concerned about having unfiltered access for all kinds of negativity that floats around in social media and what it does to our mental health and mental wellness,” he added.
“It is something we have to be mindful of. We don’t have any policy here yet in the Caribbean of addressing those things but to my mind from an information point a view you have misinformation, disinformation, you have false information, you have open rampant repeated defamation of people’s characters,” he said as the guest on the Spice Morning show of the Government Information Service (GIS) on 3 December 2025.
“People need to understand that this sort of behaviour is not acceptable. I may not take action against it, but it doesn’t mean that society should not have laws and regulations in place to protect people who do not perhaps have the strength or the emotional fortitude to be able to live through those things,” he said.
“We also have to fight the downside of social media, which is a lot of mindless, numbless, pointless decadence,” Prime Minister Mitchell said, while speaking about the scourge of society that some people ignore but which can negatively affect society if no action is taken to reduce, curb or solve certain challenges or difficulties.
He described social media as a place “Where all people do is troll people, abuse people, bully people, call people all kinds of names and engage in the dark of the negative rather than focusing on the light, the positive, and all of the important work that people are engaged in trying to build the society and build the community.”
Suggesting that leaders of varying sectors get involved and contribute to fighting the downside of social media, the Prime Minister said, “The public needs to speak about those things. The churches and civil society need to speak about those things, society needs to speak about those things because it might be the politicians today, but it can be the church leaders tomorrow, civil society leaders; it could be the trade unions’ leadership tomorrow.”
“So, if they are doing it to me as prime minister, if they are doing it to the politicians, then who are you to do it to? Those are the things that people need to understand,” he said.
