As online harms become more serious in Fiji, the Online Safety Commission stresses that we need to keep up with stronger laws and adequate budgets to ensure the victims also get justice.
Online Safety Commissioner, Filipe Batiwale says one issue being raised by the Commission during the review of the Online Safety Act is whether the Commission should have limited prosecutorial powers for specified offences under the new online-safety legislation.
Commissioner Batiwale says the proposal should be considered on its merits and with appropriate safeguards.
He says he understands why people may be cautious about giving a regulator more powers, but we should also be prepared to ask whether the current system is giving victims the best outcome.
Batiwale says the Commission's proposal would not remove Police from serious online offending or replace the constitutional role of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The Commission is proposing that consideration be given to a specialist pathway for defined offences, with separation between investigation and prosecution decisions, evidential and public-interest tests and appropriate Police, DPP and judicial oversight.
The Commissioner says he is not asking for unchecked power.
Batiwale says they are asking to design a system that makes sense for the kind of cases they are now dealing with.
The Online Safety Commission says Fiji is dealing with more serious and complex forms of online harm, but the institutions expected to respond must be given the laws, resources and technical capability to keep pace.
The Commission says it's annual budget has reduced from approximately $1.5 million to $1.1 million, at a time when the nature of complaints coming through its doors is becoming increasingly difficult.
Commissioner Batiwale says the issue is not simply about the number of complaints.
He says they are seeing more serious complaints now, and 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.
Batiwale says this changes the kind of response that is required from the Commission.
The Online Safety Commission received 1,609 complaints in 2025, with more than half involving cyberbullying, harassment or defamatory electronic communications.
About 65 percent arose on Meta platforms, particularly facebook and Instagram.
The Commission says its work increasingly requires more than simply receiving a complaint and contacting a social-media platform.
They say serious cases can require evidence to be preserved, accounts to be identified, complainants to be supported, platforms to be contacted urgently and matters to be referred for criminal investigation.
Commissioner Batiwale says the Commission is expected to do more as the risks become more sophisticated, while working with fewer resources.
A recent reconciliation exercise between the Commission and the Fiji Police Force identified 61 matters that had been referred by the Commission for Police investigation.
The Commission and Police are now working to improve how referred matters are acknowledged, tracked and progressed and how case-status information is shared between the two institutions.
Commissioner Batiwale says complainants should not be left uncertain about what happens after their matter moves from the Commission to Police.
The Fiji Law Reform Commission-led review of the Online Safety Act 2018 has progressed through public and stakeholder consultations and a validation process and is now in its final reporting and legislative drafting stage.
The Commission says it has been contributing its experience of working under the current Act, including the problems faced when dealing with serious complaints, overseas social-media platforms, evidence, Police referrals and emerging forms of technology-facilitated abuse.
Commissioner Batiwale stresses that the review of the Online Safety Act provides Fiji with an important opportunity.
He says we should not go through an entire law reform exercise and come out the other side with the same practical problems.
Batiwale says if the law is strengthened, people should be able to feel the difference when they need help - that means looking seriously at what powers the Commission needs, what Police needs, how matters move between agencies, what obligations platforms should have and how quickly action can be taken when someone is being harmed.
The Commission says it also continues to encounter difficulties when harmful content, relevant accounts or important evidence sit with multinational technology companies operating outside Fiji.
Under the current Online Safety Act, the Commission does not have direct statutory authority to compel global platforms to remove harmful content.
Commissioner Batiwale says that imbalance must also form part of the reform discussion.
He says if a platform is happy to provide services in Fiji and benefit from Fijians using that platform, there also needs to be a reliable way for Fiji to get a response when a child, family or victim is in serious difficulty.
Batiwale says we cannot have a situation where the harm is happening here but the practical ability to respond to it sits somewhere overseas.
Members of the public experiencing online harm can contact the Online Safety Commission through its
official complaint channels or call the toll-free assistance line 1548.
Meanwhile a special fijivillage Straight Talk Public Forum with Vijay Narayan will go live at 7pm this Friday September 4th.
The theme of the forum is Online Safety: Connected and Protected.
The panelists for the public forum will be Online Safety Commissioner, Filipe Batiwale, and Fiji Law Reform Commissioners David Solvalu and Valerie Narain.
The Straight Talk forum will focus on Online Safety Issues in Fiji, what is being faced by the Online Safety Commission, the feedback from the members of the public during the consultation process on the review of the Online Safety Act 2018, the call for age restrictions for Social Media, the response from victims, the changes being proposed and the reasons behind them amongst other issues.
You can also be part of the live audience by applying for registration with a question that you would like to ask during the forum.
The application to register details can be found on our website and facebook page, fijivillage.
You will receive a confirmation if you have been selected to be part of the live audience.
Please apply early to avoid any disappointment.
The show will be broadcast live at 7pm Friday September 4th on our Facebook, YouTube and X accounts, fijivillage.
