Namibia yesterday launched its Ethical Use of Social Media campaign in the wake of revelations about the scale of online crime in the Southern African country.
Lieutenant General Joseph Shikongo, of the Namibian Police Force, released the statistics for the period 2022-2025, calling them "alarming."
He revealed that fraud, defamation of character, and theft under false pretence are among the most common crimes committed on or enabled by social media sites.
Other forms of assault include threats, extortion, cyber bullying, online child sexual exploitation, human trafficking, dissemination of explicit content, hate speech, and encouragement to violence.
This has spurred the authorities to launch a crackdown.
Shikongo revealed at the campaign's launch that between April 2022 and April 2025, a total of 11 990 fraud cases were reported to police, with 9 039 crimen injuria crimes conducted using internet platforms across the country.
During the same time period, 4 835 cases of defamation and 165 cases of theft under false pretence were noted.
The police head stated that there were six cases of human trafficking, including 38 Namibians recruited by other nationals and four foreign nationals recruited to work in Namibia.
Furthermore, he said a crypto currency scam run from Namibia, to the detriment of international victims, was still being pursued in court.
"The Namibia Police Force is ready to strengthen our cyber crime unit, build up capacity to detect, investigate and prosecute social media-related offences, working with the prosecution," Shikongo said.
"It (the campaign) is about promoting responsibility, through encouraging every Namibian to think before they post, verify before they share and engage without causing harm.”
He said the police would work with telecommunications companies and other service providers to track down culprits.
Emma Theofelus, minister of information and communication technology, formally launched the Ethical Use of Social Media campaign at Namibia University of Science and Technology.
Theofelus lamented the mental toll that the aforementioned crimes caused on some Namibians.
"We have lost so many of our productive citizens to the scourge of misinformation and disinformation and lack of privacy amid the advent of mental health challenges," she said.
She also urged citizens to support the campaign and report crimes, saying: "Importantly, crimes created online and offline deserve the attention of our law enforcement. They (online and offline crimes) carry the same weight."
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