One of the key industries that has blossomed in the digital age is the content creation industry.
Bill Gates once labelled content as the king. That is undeniably true. A huge chunk of digital engagements is content driven. Today, globally, across social media and online platforms, content creators continue to bloom, creating millions of contents daily in the form of newsletters, graphics, blogs, vlogs, reels, reviews, articles, carousels, memes, podcasts, documentaries, audiobooks, infographics, posters, voice notes, explainers, unboxing videos, skits, and many more.
These contents are shared on TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat, X, WhatsApp, websites, and other online platforms, generating massive engagements and incomes for the creators through subscriptions, advertisement, sponsorships, brand promotion, and sale of digital products.
The cost of virality
To capture a reasonable share of the online market and boost earnings, content creators are constantly innovating to ensure freshness and uniqueness of contents that will consistently appeal to netizens and go viral, that is garner mass appeal. In their desire for virality, creators sometimes hug the borderlines of legality in their content; they often flirt with exploitation and abuse that tend to cross the ethical and legal lines in their creations, with devastating personal and societal consequences. Many content creators have suffered legal, bodily, and social consequences for distributed digital contents that seemed to rile individuals or the society.
In 2024, for instance, a viral video showed an angry Nigerian wife tore her husband’s international passport due to a ‘domestic dispute’. It was later revealed that the couple are content creators and the torn passport was a stunt to gain more followers.
While they may have gained more followership, the action clearly crossed the legal line. And unsurprisingly, the Nigerian Immigration Service, whose officers also saw the video, promptly arrested the lady for damaging government property. The Nigerian Immigration Act (2015), which regulates passport issuance and ownership, clearly designates a Nigerian passport, irrespective of the holder, as the property of the federal government. Thus, it is a criminal offence to willfully damage, destroy, or deface a passport, even if it is your own. The offence could land an individual in jail. The couple was obviously ignorant of this law.
In 2023, a YouTuber in the US Tanner Cook was shot in a mall in Virginia while filming a prank content for his channel. Cook chose a random guy in the mall and was aggressively following him to make him a subject in his prank video. The man, who was uncomfortable with that and felt threatened, brought out a gun and shot Cook. The man was arrested and he pleaded self-defence in court. The court agreed and acquitted him. Thankfully, Cook survived the shooting.
Content creators, particularly skit makers and pranksters, often publish contents without seeking or getting the consent of individuals in the public that they feature in those videos, as was the case with Cook, a clear violation of privacy and dignity. This could lead to psychological trauma, reputational damage, and risk to safety for those involved.
The Russian affair
This brings me to the recent hot viral topic in Ghana, which has once again raised the complex ethical and legal questions related to privacy and consent in content creation. A Russian content creator visited Ghana and while in the country suddenly got the warped idea to entice Ghanaian ladies into a tryst with him, record the romantic encounters with the ladies and post the videos on his online assets. And he acted on the idea.
The videos immediately went viral, creating an uproar in Ghana and across the continent. Many were incensed by the videos and called out the Russian’s manipulative and exploitative use of the women, some of whom are married, who were clearly identifiable faces in the society. In his defence, the Russian claimed he got the consent of the women to record the episodes.
Consent matters
Now, concerning consent, this is where many content creators get ingenious and downright exploitative. Yes, it is quite possible that those women consented to being recorded when the Russian first engaged them in conversations on the streets, at the mall, or wherever else he met them. Those initial engagements were innocuous enough. But it is highly implausible that the women consented to being recorded while he was propositioning them or having suggestive encounters with them, at least not the married ones. And even if we stretched his excuse a little further and concede that those women gave him consent to record their escapade, it is inconceivable that they consented to those videos being posted online. Such consent was never sought nor given. One of the victims debunked the Russian’s claim. According to her, the viral video of her with the Russian had been manipulated to misrepresent what truly transpired between them.
What may have happened was that the Russian simply extended the consent given to record their initial innocuous conversations to cover for the romantic footage and distribution online. Globally, the law frowns at that. It is exploitation. In fact, laws relating to consent for digital engagements online hardly rely on oral consent because that is nebulous; consent must be informed, voluntary, and documented. This is so to avoid the Ghanaian scenario, where both sides to the issue are making different claims.
The bigger conversation
While many moralised the episodes, castigating the women as hot pants, the bigger conversation we should be having as nations and as a continent is how to strengthen our cyberlaws to forestall and deter such reckless and callous exploitation from occurring. Let’s face it, content creators are increasingly emboldened to dare the law in the pursuit of unique contents that will drive the footfalls to their pages and enhance their earnings. Monetising poverty and humiliation, which the Russian did, should never be condoned and should come with serious consequences.
When content creators are cashing in on some of these unethical videos, there is a human cost. Real lives are destroyed, stigmatised, emotionally traumatised, and left distrust, sometimes compromising their mental wellbeing. One of the women in the Russian’s video revealed the heavy price she’s paying already since the video went viral. “My family is ignoring me, my life is in turmoil, and everything around me feels shattered,” she said in clear anguish.
The Russian may have moved on to his next project. But for the women in the video, the scar of such online exposure runs deep and may haunt them for the rest of their lives because we live in a part of the world where relationships and societal acceptance are largely driven by reputation.
What the Ghanaian govt must do
I’m encouraged that the Ghanaian “government has initiated steps to trace and secure relevant digital and financial evidence” of the video and content creator, according to the country’s minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George. But the government needs to work quickly to formally report the Russian to the social media platforms so the videos can be taken down. It is clearly sexploitation. The Russian crossed the entertainment line into the criminal territory under Ghana’s Cybersecurity Act and Criminal Offences laws and the government should seek to prosecute him and his associates. I imagined his Ghanaian visa has been revoked and he has been blacklisted.
Lessons for Ghanaian and other African govts
The Ghanaian authority and indeed other African countries need to strengthen their cybercrime and privacy laws and insist social media platforms too be more responsible in how they handle non-consensual private videos. The platforms need to have a mechanism to check that such private and sensitive contents are fully consented to by parties involved before they can be posted.
More importantly, the content creation industry is one of the largest, today. Governments must pay serious attention to the industry in terms of appropriate regulations and enlightenment of the content creators and the general populace as to what constitute entertainment and what could be criminal.
Lessons for individuals
People need to know that they have a right to privacy, dignity, and a right not to be exploited or exploit others. Beyond these rights, however, they need to be circumspect in terms of what they post online or what they expose themselves to in the shifty and unforgiven online world. People are often quick to bring out their mobile devices in public, record incidents that appeal to them and share same online without pausing to think of the consequences.
We must know that filming people without their consent and posting same online, especially situations that may be considered private, carry huge consequences as it may violate privacy laws and attract lawsuits or criminal prosecution.
