[Photo: FILE]

Fiji’s Online Safety Commission says it is dealing with increasingly serious and complex online abuse while operating with a budget that has been cut by $400,000.

The Commission’s annual funding has dropped from about $1.5 million dollars to $1.1 million.

This comes as it received 1,609 complaints last year, with more than half involving cyberbullying, harassment or defamatory electronic communications.

Online Safety Commissioner Filipe Batiwale says some of the complaints now involve children, intimate images, threats, exploitation and fake accounts.

“We are seeing more serious complaints now. These are not always arguments between people on Facebook. Some matters involve children, intimate images, threats, exploitation, fake accounts, multiple platforms and digital evidence that can disappear very quickly.”

The Commission says 65 percent of complaints came from Meta platforms, particularly Facebook and Instagram.

It says serious cases can require digital evidence to be preserved, accounts to be identified, victims supported and social-media platforms contacted urgently.

And 61 matters have been referred to Police for criminal investigation.

OSC and Police are now working to improve how those cases are tracked and how complainants are kept informed.

Batiwale says Fiji’s current review of the Online Safety Act provides an opportunity to fix practical problems in how online offences are investigated and prosecuted.

The Commission is also proposing consideration of limited prosecutorial powers for specified online-safety offences, with appropriate safeguards and oversight.

It says global technology companies must also be made more responsive when harmful content and evidence are held outside Fiji.

Batiwale says Fiji cannot afford to strengthen its online-safety laws while leaving its response behind the rapidly changing nature of online harm.