Ethiopia has begun developing its own social media platform to rival Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Zoom. Though the state communications security agency said it does not plan to block the global services.
The move by the Ethiopian government comes after the director-general of the Information Network Security Agency (INSA), Shumete Gizaw, accused Facebook of deleting posts and user accounts “disseminating the true reality about Ethiopia” as well as blocking users who were “preaching national unity and peace”. Those posts were a network of fake accounts in Ethiopia targeting domestic users which Facebook linked to individuals associated with INSA.
Gizaw also told Reuters that INSA wants to reduce reliance on foreign technology firms that meddle in the country’s politics and that the rationale behind developing technology with local capacity is clear, asking the rhetorical question of “Why do you think China is using WeChat?”
As tensions between the Tigray region and Ethiopia’s federal government increased significantly lately, supporters of both sides have waged a parallel war of words on social media designed to influence international understanding of the ongoing Tigray conflict through a myriad of actors, strategies, and media manipulation tactics. However, International human rights groups have criticized the Ethiopian government for unexplained shutdowns to social media services in the past year which have come amid a brutal civil war between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which controls a region in the country’s north.
Unfortunately as we remain skeptical of this decision from the Ethiopian government, this move could be interpreted as a slide into digital autocracy instead of progressive measures to decrease levels of dependence of American Big tech who have had a terrible track record when it comes to privacy and other issues related to the moderation of content without right amount of due diligence.
