Policing Algorithmic Shared Media! Could Racial Animosity & Social Media Hate Discourses scuttle Pluralism? Quo Vadis Ethiopia! RL Vol XII No 377 MMXVIII

Policing Algorithmic Shared Media!

Could Racial Animosity & Social Media Hate Discourses scuttle Pluralism? Quo Vadis Ethiopia!

Public Lecture - RL Vol XII No 377 MMXVIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

Juan Ortiz Freuler (2018) asserts that three perspectives exist on ‘whether the internet is having a damaging impact on democracy’, auguring on the fact that ‘over the last few years, the potentially damaging impact of the internet, and particularly social media, on democracy has increasingly come to dominate the news. Catherine O'Donnell (2011) writes, after analysing more than 3 million tweets, gigabytes of content and thousands of blog posts, a new study finds that social media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring. Indeed, governments assert that pernicious ‘politicians’ using social media defy reason and derive pleasure from real peoples’ misfortunes; ecstatically oblivious of the negative impact that they have on the poor in Ethiopia. Their media outlets thrive on promoting conflict, protected by their newly acquired rights of citizenship in the West. While they derive contentment from creating chaos, generate needless complexity and strife, these ‘politicians’ will never be worth one’s time and energy—and they take a lot of each. Whether it is ruthlessness or just plain idiocy, such reckless agent provocateurs that augur their discourse on argumentum ad hominem find it tantalising to waste the intellect of cognoscenti as their emotive cesspool.

Hence, the Ethiopian government has passed a cybercrime law that criminalises an array of substantive computer activities including the distribution of defamatory speech, spam, and pornography online among others offenses. The Computer Crime Proclamation law,, was passed, the government says, in an effort to more accurately attune the country’s laws to technological advances and provide the government better mechanisms and procedures to prevent, control, investigate, and prosecute the suspects of computer crimes (Carlson, 2016). Parallel to the recently introduced national motto in all government offices and beyond, Ethiopia, a New Horizon of Hope, which brings a single page (dashboard) of 100 days plan, the Office of Attorney General of Ethiopia is preparing a draft bill aiming to curb hate speech. It is also to bring accountability towards public speeches and every other discourse, which is deemed to ignite hate and racial tensions in the country. The rise of irresponsible social media activism and fake news in recent times is being blamed as the catalyst especially for race related violence in various parts of the country.

Using desk study of literature and personal observation, the research augurs on questions that are important in examining and assessing the ideological openness of transitions to plural politics in Ethiopia. The discussion augurs on the fact that beyond the sphere of social media agency, possibilities and problems of democratic transition openness can be grasped in terms of the related domain of ideology. Regulation of social media suggests itself, seems within reach only to elude, and appears readily practicable only to resist realisation. A more proactive state that inclusive of its citizens can wither away the challenges faced by agent provocateurs that augur their discourse on argumentum ad hominem find it tantalising to waste the intellect of well-meaning cognoscenti, as their emotive cesspool.

Key words: social media, regulation, political transition, political activism, populism, authoritarianism
See paper here or  https://www.academia.edu/37949894/Policing_Algorithmic_Shared_Media_Could_Racial_Animosity_and_Social_Media_Hate_Discourses_scuttle_Pluralism_Quo_Vadis_Ethiopia_-_RL_Vol_XII_No_377_MMXVIII

"Within countries, the supply of ideas of plural politics may be artificially deflated by particular strategies and mechanisms used by incumbent governments to manage entire reform processes. Conceptual possibilities may be left unrealised, or sub-optimally realised, insofar as governing elite are preoccupied with filling out those spaces of uncertainty in transition political thought, discourse and action that social media activists would occupy in the course of their own engagement."