No shield for online gossip: Legal warning over social media shares as Malawi cyber laws bite
Malawians who share unverified rumours on WhatsApp and social media could face criminal prosecution or crippling civil damages, a UK-based Malawian lawyer and former journalist has warned.
Writing in The Nation’s “My Turn” opinion column, Peter Makossah said phrases such as “forwarded as received” and “just sharing to find out if it’s true” have long been treated as shields against liability, but no longer offer protection under the law.
“Legally, that ‘forward’ button is a loaded gun, and your fingerprint is on the trigger,” Makossah wrote.
He said that under the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act, a person who shares a defamatory post is not merely a messenger but becomes a publisher in the eyes of the law.
Sharing falsehoods, he argued, gives them “a new lease on life,” regardless of intent.
Makossah said the police and the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) have sharpened their focus on digital enforcement, adding that anonymity through burner SIM cards is becoming a “thin shield” against increasingly capable tracking tools.
Criminal defamation struck down, but other offences remain
Makossah’s warning comes after a landmark ruling in July 2025, when the Constitutional Court struck down Section 200 of the Penal Code, the criminal defamation provision.
In Joshua Chisa Mbele v the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General, Justices Chifundo Kachale, Fiona Mwale and Mzondi Mvula unanimously found the provision invalid.
The court ruled that using criminal sanctions to protect personal reputations was an unjustifiable restriction on free expression under Section 44(2) of the Constitution. The judgment effectively reclassified defamation as a strictly civil wrong.
Makossah said some online commentators wrongly took the ruling as licence to say whatever they wished about public officials.
He argued that prosecutors have instead turned to the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act of 2016, under which offences such as cyber harassment (Section 86) and offensive communication (Section 87) carry heavy fines and custodial sentences.
“The naming has changed, but the steep fines and custodial sentences remain identical,” he wrote.
Civil claims and WhatsApp administrators
Even those who avoid a police cell, Makossah warned, could face financial ruin. He said civil defamation suits in Malawi are rising, with high-profile cases seeing public figures and private individuals ordered to pay tens of millions of kwacha over digital slurs.
“In a civil court, a judge does not care if you were just ‘gossipping with friends’,” he wrote. “They care about the damage caused to a person’s livelihood, mental health or reputation.”
He also cautioned WhatsApp group administrators, saying those who allow groups to become vehicles for character assassination, cyberbullying or doxxing without intervening are “effectively acting as the editor of a reckless, unregulated newspaper.”
Makossah said stalking people across Facebook profiles, instigating online “pile-ons” and orchestrating character assassinations are no longer regarded as harmless internet drama but as digital crimes.
His advice to social media users was blunt: before forwarding a juicy voice note about a politician or a neighbour, ask whether the claim could be proved true in a court of law.
“If no, let the chain break with you. ‘Forwarded as Received’ is no longer a disclaimer, it is a confession,” he wrote.
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