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Opinions on Monday, November 30, 2020
Columnist: Abdul Rahman Shaban Alpha
2020-11-30
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
Ethiopia has had a challenging 2020 in relation to the internet. There has been a triple outage: two restricted to particular areas and one nationwide. The first blackout in western Oromia lasted three months in an area where the government was fighting rebels.
The second and most shocking was the national blackout imposed in June, for most of July following the assassination of a famous Oromo artist, Hachaalu Hundessa, in the capital Addis Ababa. That blackout lasted more than three weeks according to Net Blocks.
The most recent restricted disruption is in the northern Tigray region, where the government says it is conducting a “rule of law operation” against the recalcitrant regional government led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, TPLF.
Immediately after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed “declared war” on the TPLF in early November 2020, Internet connectivity was cut off in Tigray when federal forces engaged regional forces in hostilities that sparked a humanitarian crisis throughout from the border with Sudan.
One-way government data verification via Facebook / Twitter
Days after the operation began in West Tigray, the government announced the official social media channels (Facebook / Twitter) to discredit the fake news. Conveying the official account of the operation and discrediting the erroneous information was the main task of the fact-checking controllers of the state of emergency.
From new reports on the bombing of a dam, the enlistment of South Sudanese soldiers and talks about regional and even continental mediation; the government discredited all of the above and confirmed other separate incidents reported in the press and posted on social media.
In spite of the incessant calls for the reduction and restoration of communications services, all of them have been rejected by Addis Ababa. The United Nations, the African Union, human rights, media and digital rights groups have made the unheeded call.
Most of the people who tweet about the crisis are believed to be Ethiopians from the diaspora or political and security observers who receive their information from other sources, be it diplomatic or other means.
The regional authorities despite the blackout continue to grant interviews especially to the main news agencies: Reuters, AFP, while other journalists in the region also broadcast news especially through Twitter.
Analysts on Ethiopia’s ‘assault’ on connectivity
Internet rights expert, Ekai Nabenyo, East African leader of the network rights group Paradigm Initiative, PIN; in an article he described the Ethiopian government’s appetite for internet shutdowns as “insatiable and atavistic.”
“… In blatant disregard for basic human rights, the Ethiopian government never missed an opportunity to violate the rights of citizens. At the slightest provocation, the government seems to always have as first option, the closure of the Internet and the restriction of communications ”.
“Internet outages are never a good option in times of crisis or national emergencies. A society that does not have access to information is a society that walks in an unfathomable abyss ”, he added.
For other analysts, it was intriguing for a government to create the conditions for fake news to be sold, and yet position itself as a “one-sided” source of credible information.
Why the outage and calls for lifting action
The Ethiopian government gave no reason, almost never gives reasons for such security-related shutdowns, but experts have said the move was to ensure that the government controls the narrative of the war as well as disrupting the lines of communication of the ” opponents “.
Despite not being opponents, the media became one of the most affected by the communications blackout. People outside the region were also unable to connect with family and friends trapped in the region.
In a recent Reuters report, the script read in part: “Claims from all parties are difficult to verify as telephone and Internet links to the region have dropped …” incidents.
Most analysts have emphasized the impact of unverifiable information. In which case, people sell fake news along with the dangers that come with it. Local and international watchdogs have tasked the government with lifting the blackout.
“Cutting off communication has severely hampered the ability to monitor the situation on the ground, particularly the impact of the clashes on the local population,” UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in a statement on November 6.
Bachelet called on Addis Ababa to “restore all basic services, including telephone and Internet connections.” Adding that “the right of all people to be informed and access information is particularly vital in a crisis situation.”
conclusion
But the Ethiopian authorities are not the only ones seeking to unilaterally combat fake news; In Nigeria, the Army has recently appropriated fake news on social media.
In the wake of the deadly shooting at the toll booth in Lagos amid the #EndSars protests, the Army put “fake news” tags on social media posts alleging complicity in the incident.
Restricting the Internet like Addis Ababa did was to achieve an end, be it security or control of information. Going one step further in fact-checking reporting underscores the importance of combating fake or unverified news.
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