World is slowly falling victim to the Internet

Melody Dube, Features Reporter
THE world today has become a victim of one of its most magnificent creations, the Internet.

Over the years, there has been a major development into a digital globe where people miles away from each other can connect like they are in the same room. All credit goes to the Internet which is undeniably one of man’s greatest inventions ever.

The Internet has enhanced connectivity, promoted businesses and prompted development to all nations in many ways. These have been the virtues brought by this digitisation era. It has done away with all limitations that the world faced before the coming in of new technologies.

These new technologies are flexible and the digital world has been advancing each day.

Those who are technologically savvy have seized all opportunities to create successful businesses via the Internet. Some of these well-known businesses are Google, founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998.

There are also fast-growing social media sites like Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook also owns and operates WhatsApp and Instagram. There is also Twitter which was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass.

There are also businesses created as sites to access various forms of entertainment such as movies and music like YouTube, owned by Google since 2006, Mp3Tunes founded by Michael Robertson, Amazon founded by Jeff Bezos, just to mention a few.

What is even more amazing is that all information that makes up our world is uploaded on the Internet. All that one has to do is to search through what is called the search engines. Information is accessible with little or no costs. It is unlike in the days of Alexander the Great when one had to travel through oceans to get some information.

Literally everything has been made available through the Internet. From information on serious issues like global current affairs to things as simple as cooking lessons.

The versatility of the Internet has seen everybody become a fan of it.

However, this does not exempt the opportunists who prey on vulnerable people. Some have turned the Internet into a nightmare for the whole world. Terrorist organisations use the Internet to carry out their activities without a trace.

Scammers are also becoming more visible through the Internet. Disinformation, human trafficking and cyber bulling are also some of the things found in this free service nowadays.

Instead of advancing in digitisation, the world is slowly falling victim to the Internet. Many lives have been lost through it. Businesses have fallen. People have been terrorised psychologically, socially, emotionally and in many other areas.

People have lost property through trading scams whereas some have lost loved ones through cyber bullying. Some are those who lose themselves to become social trend psychopaths.

The Internet has done and continues to do damage in all countries, big and small.

Zimbabwe too is slowly becoming a victim to the disruption caused by the Internet. There have been reported cases where people have been scammed mostly on social media sites by other users who mostly pretend to be legit businesses.

Recently, there was a case posted on Twitter by the Zimbabwe Republic Police of a man who was robbed of R50 000 by an unknown man impersonating a health worker at Mpilo Central Hospital.

The ZRP also posted another case of a person victimised by a fake advertiser on WhatsApp claiming to be selling vehicle parts.

Some Facebook account holders who are Zimbabwean citizens have been circulating some of the people caught faking to be employment brokers. Tendai Chelsea Rwambi, Artwell Mashindi and Sifiso Lusaba who are account holders taken from Facebook testified to have been scammed by the circulated person with one saying he was duped by the man saying he had gotten a job as a counsellor at Nyanga.

Such malice on the Internet is not happening only in Zimbabwe but all over the world. Some cases get more tragic than what is experienced in our nation. For instance, the United Nations recently sent out an alert message concerning organ trafficking all over the world.

Their statement partly read:
“The black market for parts of the human body is booming in the Middle East. A kidney costs US$262 000 (131 million CFA francs); the heart costs US$119 000 (60 million CFA francs) and the liver costs US$157 000 dollars (79 million CFA francs). Beware of fake foreign agencies promising to make you work abroad…”

This is what our world is coming to under the grasp of the Internet. Much awareness of such dangers is needed.

Countries now need to work on how to contain this uncontrollably growing vice for the safety of all people.

The United Kingdom has since made a decision to counter this situation. It has put its intelligence agency, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in charge of fighting against these now experienced tragedies.

It stated that “the GCHQ intends to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to tackle issues from child abuse to disinformation and human trafficking”.

The UK intelligence agency also said that the AI will be used to spot fake online messages used by other states spreading disinformation. It will map international networks engaged in human trafficking and find child-sex-abusers hiding their identities online.

This is a positive step towards taking the Internet back to how it was envisioned.

It is a strategy all nations should consider adopting if the globe is to be protected from this unpredictable creature.

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