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Dr David Matsanga. /CFM-FILE.

Fifth Estate

Matsanga sparks new debate on use of generic social media accounts

By Dr.David Matsanga in London UK

The current situation where the generic or pseudo-social media hype the citizens with fraudulent materials must be curtailed. Kenya, again, like 2007-2008 is loud with the drums of conflicts.

I can decipher the coded message. The genocidal threats from Oscar Sudi and Ng’eno are unmistakable. Kenya has been there before. The time has come when silence becomes complicity.

It is unfortunate that the pursuit of political power threatens to once again throw the country in the mayhem of ethnic cleansing that left thousands dead in 2007. The government of Kenya must take decisive action against those threatening the country if their political preferences don’t carry the day.

Kenya is a democratic nation and people should be democratic when discussing issues about others. No Kenyan should be made to feel like they are citizens of doubtful nationality just because they have settled away from ancestral homelands.

The truth is that when you want to create a state of despondency and turmoil, you start by undermining state authorities, to achieve this…begin by insulting the Head of State and embarrassing him in the eyes of the public.

This is meant to ensure that people take the law into their hands and anarchy reigns supreme. This is exactly what the lapdogs are doing. It’s a well-calculated strategy. The Government must act. Now.

However, the world is watching. Forces of good progress, peace and unity are taking notes.
We have enough experience to know when the foundation for bloodshed is being built. Be warned!

I state here again that Kenyans should stop cheering hatemongers, focus on unity of purpose.
Ethnic hatred and incitement to ethnic violence have now migrated to the Internet and social media in Kenya.

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In blogs, on Facebook and Twitter, Kenyans have taken the venom of generic ethnic chauvinism, hatred and incitement to the digital world to escape the fairly effective measures adopted by the print and broadcast media restricting inciting speech.

Indeed, the retreat of the generic hate-mongers to the crevices of the Internet is a testament to the effectiveness of some of the measures taken to regulate harmful speech since the post-election violence.

In particular, the establishment of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission provided the country with an important mechanism for addressing incitement to ethnic violence but it’s our submission that the organ isn’t doing as much.

Whereas that commission has been roundly criticized by many Kenyans, its constant summons to politicians allegedly engaged in ethnic incitement has considerably tempered some of the utterances that would have otherwise fuelled the fires of ethnic divisions.

Commendably too, some technology industry players have been willing to take down some of the generic viral comments posted on social media platforms.

There is now in Kenya a debate in both popular and policy circles as to what limits, restrictions or guidelines should be established to ensure the protection of freedom of speech and opinion without, at the same time, setting aflame communities. The question should be how to stop generic accounts.

I believe that that the debate is important as the ongoing cyber insecurity dangerously intersects with ethnic divisions and conflicts. Regulation of hate speech in Kenya is in its infancy in terms of law and policy. It is even more challenging when there is no policy and legal response to this kind of speech on the Internet and generic social media

The extremist groups, racist and xenophobic, have retreated to the safety and anonymity of the generic Internet to recruit their new members, mobilise and incite hatred against ethnic and racial groups and minorities.

Whereas some states in Africa have attempted to regulate the content on the generic Internet websites and generic social media through criminal and administrative law sanctions, the borderless nature of the Internet continues to weaken this approach.

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Hate sites are sometimes located in countries that offer them near-absolute freedom, thus limiting the efforts of one country to control the content. Those opposed to any form of regulation cite this difficulty as evidence of the futility of using national law to regulate what is a global mode of communication.

Moreover, the argument goes, what is needed is more of a good speech to counter bad speech on the Internet, and any measures to regulate it are likely to lead to political censorship.

However, most rights protecting constitutions as well as international human rights law provide the framework for the prohibition of a narrow category of harmful speech.

Incitement to genocide, to war crimes and to crimes against humanity do not qualify as protected speech. No one would disagree that the restriction, and indeed the banning, of hate radios and newspapers that fuelled the Rwandan genocide, would have been within the rules of human rights.

The fears over the chilling effect of any form of criminal or administrative law regulating the generic Internet are, however, not entirely unfounded.

I believe that as a leader in digital technology in Africa, Kenya has the opportunity to provide the leadership on regulation against ethnically generic inciting Internet and generic social media content. The Kenyan Judiciary is well-positioned to elaborate on what constitutes prohibited speech in line with the constitutional protections of freedom of expression.

I now believe that cases on hate speech and incitement currently pending before various courts in Kenya are an opportunity for the courts to provide guidelines on this issue. I also believe a stakeholder approach bringing together technology companies, the State, the intelligence, independent institutions, and civil society should be encouraged to discuss openly about generic social media accounts.

I finally suggest that national intelligence systems come in to conduct due diligence on the generic social media that has become fraudulent. Independent national institutions such as the National Cohesion and Integration Commission and the cyber police are best placed to assess content on generic websites and generic social media and advise the government and service providers on what should be taken down.

God bless Africa

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The writer is a Political Scientist and International Relations with Conflict Resolution Expert bias, an investigative Journalist and a Pan African based in Surrey London, the United Kingdom.

Twitter @Dr.David Matsanga

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