Twitter, Facebook Being Used To Spread Hate in Kenya

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jasho
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Jun 26, 2019 1:08 am

Twitter, Facebook Being Used To Spread Hate in Kenya

Post by jasho » Wed Jul 24, 2019 8:27 am

In the past few months, there has been high profile corruption cases being investigated, and yesterday, the Treasury CS and PS were charged in court with committing economic crimes. Every person is assumed to be innocent until proven guilty.

“Coincidentally”, in the past few months, there has been many posts on social media - mostly Facebook & Twitter - alleging ethnically skewed personnel in various government departments.

In Kenya, there is a commission that deals with issues related to discrimination on ethnic, racial and religious basis, called The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC).

“The NCIC is a statutory body established by the National Cohesion and Integration Act (no.12 of 2008) following the 2007- 2008 post-election crisis.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_ ... Commission

At NCIC, a person can lodge a complaint regarding such issues as discrimination based on ethnicity. They even have an option to lodge a complaint online.

Furthermore, a person aware of matters to do with widespread ethnic bias in a government department/ministry/corporation can also contact their MP or any other MP, so the matter can be brought to the attention of parliament, where the concerned parties can be summoned.

But the people alleging ethnic bias in employment in various government departments clearly do not want to go through formal channels to have the matter addressed.

The reason is because their concern is not the alleged tribal bias in employment, but they are using Facebook and Twitter to spread tribal hate, hoping that the resulting tribal fall-out will derail the war against corruption.

Unfortunately, some of the people spreading these very dangerous messages online are quite prominent. Some are verified on Twitter, complete with the blue tick.

Names

In Kenya, people’s names generally indicate the person’s tribe. Therefore, the people on social media - mainly Facebook & Twitter - who are spreading documents allegedly “proving” that certain tribes are over-represented in certain government departments, are using the peoples’ names to determine their ethnicity.

I will now show why the authors of these documents do not want to report the “complaints” to the relevant authorities (because they know their allegations cannot withstand scrutiny). Theirs is just a blatant attempt to cause tribal conflict in Kenya, and sabotage the fight against corruption.

1. There are many Kenyans with a mother from one tribe, and a father from a different tribe. Sometimes, such people may have a name from one tribe, and a surname from a different tribe.

Let’s say the person has a name from tribe A, and another from tribe B. If the persons spreading hate online want it to appear that tribe A is over-represented, they will only use the name from tribe A.

Therefore, if someone from tribe B sees the document showing tribe A is over-represented, he will feel resentment towards members of tribe A, yet the data could as easily have been made to show his tribe (B) is over-represented.

2. A similar situation as above is when an employee is a married lady (who may, or may not be using her husbands name). If she’s from tribe A, and her husband is from tribe B, then the name used to spread hate online will depend on what tribe the authors of the documents are targeting.

3. There many names that are used by more than one tribe. There are even some names that are used by more than 6 tribes. But when the authors of the hate articles include those names as belonging to a particular tribe (even if not true), most people who read it will believe it.

From the above, you can see clearly that it is impossible to determine that a certain department has x employees of tribe A just by looking at names. That is why it is important for any person who has reason to believe that there is ethnic bias in a certain department, to use the right channels e.g. report to NCIC so they can investigate.

This is especially necessary because the matter is sensitive, and can cause serious conflict if not handled carefully.

Other points to note regarding this matter:
- A department/ministry/corporation may have 30 drivers from tribe A, and only 5 drivers of tribe B, out of a total of 100 drivers. The same department/ministry/corporation may have only 5 clerks from tribe A, and 30 clerks of tribe B, out of a total of 100 clerks.

A document may spread online “shaming” the department for having 30 clerks from tribe B, and only 5 from tribe A. Clearly, such selective data is very misleading, and is deliberately meant to cause other tribes to be resentful towards members of tribe B.

In return, members of tribe B will feel unfairly targeted, and will be resentful towards the other tribes. Any Kenyan who experienced the violence of 2008 would never want that to happen again.

- The average Kenyan does not waste time thinking about how many members of his tribe are in whatever government department. That is the work of the elite, who would like to use skewed reporting to incite tribes against each other.

- Incitement - by the media and politicians - led to the deaths of more than 1,300 Kenyans in 2008. This time, the incitement is being done on Facebook and Twitter. These inciters of ethnic hate are using Facebook and Twitter because they know NCIC, and other investigative agencies in Kenya have no jurisdiction over the platforms.

RTLM & Kangura

Facebook Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) was a Rwandan radio station which broadcast from July 8, 1993 to July 31, 1994. It played a significant role during the April–July 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_T%C ... e_Collines

Twitter Kangura was a Kinyarwanda- and French-language magazine in Rwanda that served to stoke ethnic hatred in the run-up to the Rwandan Genocide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangura

How To Stop This Incitement

My humble plea to the US government: The US government has the power to investigate Facebook and Twitter regarding this matter. If the US government orders the 2 companies to stop allowing their platforms to be used to incite hate in Kenya, that would be good news to all peace-loving Kenyans.

jasho
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Jun 26, 2019 1:08 am

Twitter, Facebook Being Used To Spread Hate in Kenya

Post by jasho » Tue Jul 30, 2019 2:21 am

Twitter has locked my account for 3 days now. But unlike in “normal” locked accounts, I can log in, but I cannot do anything else. Cannot see notices. I cannot even log off.

According to Twitter: “If you log in or open your app and see a message that your account is locked or that some of your account features have been limited, follow the instructions to restore it or continue reading for more information.

“If you have an email address associated with your account, we also sent instructions to that address. If you don’t see an email from us, please check your spam, junk and, social folders.”
https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-yo ... d-accounts

They haven’t sent me any email. Nothing.

This is the second time this has happened to me. The first time it happened was last year with Gab, the so-called Twitter alternative. In that case, I had received many many auto email messages showing that many people had replied to one of my posts.

So I logged into Gab so I could reply to the posts, only to find it locked - no message, no email. Nothing. Just like it has happened now with Twitter.

On another note: This therefore means that Twitter has identified who I am, and know about the post above. There can therefore be no excuse for Twitter to have Kenya-related (ethnic) hate speech on their platform.

If ethnic violence breaks in Kenya (incited by people who want to derail the corruption war using Twitter/Facebook to preach hate), Twitter cannot claim that they were not warned. They will be held responsible. Together with Facebook.

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