Ethiopia would like to replace popular social networks with in-house developments
In the past decade, one fact has become particularly evident: social networks have grown in power. At the latest, the scandals surrounding Cambridge Analytica and the election manipulation in 2016 brought the dark side of these to light. Political leaders are also likely to have discovered the potential of controlling such networks by now.
So it is all the more unsurprising that a message from Addis Ababa comes as a result. Ethiopia is said to have started to develop its own alternative to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. So far, the country has been better known for armed conflict. The local government has been fighting the TPFL for a year, a movement that is committed to freedom.
Of course, there is also a lively exchange of views on the conflict on Facebook, Twitter and Co., after all, 6 million of the country’s 115 million inhabitants are registered on Facebook. Therefore, Facebook still determines today which opinions have their place on the platform and which are deleted at short notice.
Hence, the government would benefit from being able to steer opinion in one direction on social networks. Sufficient specialists for such a new development should be available according to those responsible. So far it has been announced that they do not want to block the competition from Silicon Valley.
Some human rights organizations fear that. In the country, networks such as Facebook and Twitter were blocked a few times in the past year, so according to your own development you could simply flip the switch and block alternatives. Facebook, Twitter and Zoom have not yet commented on the development.
Own opinion:
Opinions and views can now be easily manipulated in social networks, should a state get into this business and decide on the development, it should come close to a catastrophe. It remains to be seen whether the announcement will actually be implemented and whether the residents of the country will play their part.
Via Reuters
