My Friend ``Yilma,`` the Devil of Social Media
Tarek Abdullah
As I sat aboard the plane bound for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and then onwards to Khartoum, on a return trip to Sudan in mid-October 2019, after a work trip to the Arua region in northern Uganda, my friend and colleague Yilma sat beside me. Yilma, which means fertility, prosperity, and well-being in Amharic, the combined wishes of parents offered to a newborn to carry throughout their life, as he told me.
We engaged in casual conversation, our voices rising with laughter in an attempt to break the monotony of sitting and listening to the hum of the plane for hours until the announcement of landing. Among the puzzles I still remember from that conversation was when I asked Yilma about the situation in Ethiopia, to which he replied as follows (We used to live well with the demons of jinn and humans. They knew us and we knew them, but today there is a new devil that entered Ethiopia that we dont know how to live with named Facebook). I remember Yilma placing his hands on his head and sighing, then continued speaking (Rumors spread and reach the corners of the country in minutes. It spreads hatred and stirs up emotions in a way weve never known before. In a poor society like ours, many innocent people die today before the wise intervene to rectify the situation. As for the state, it is weak, lacking in resources and talents to do anything).
When I told him I understand some of the negative effects caused by modern tools if used incorrectly, or perhaps they are the fears of a man from the old generation nearing sixty years old. And I mentioned how the youth in Sudan were able to harness social media to organize themselves and spark a revolution that toppled a regime that ruled the country for thirty years. Yilmas comment on my speech was shocking and more pessimistic (Maybe one day well wake up and not find the Ethiopia we know because of Facebook). The plane landed at Addis Ababa Airport, and Yilma went home, while I headed to the waiting lounge for the flight to Khartoum.
A year after that conversation, in mid-November 2020, armed conflict erupted between the government of the Tigray region, led by the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, and the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) with the assistance of the Ethiopian Federal Police and regional state police and tribal forces in the neighboring Amhara region and Afar region. Eritrean defense forces involvement in the fighting, prompting the US administration to impose sanctions on the Eritrean chief of staff and other officers and leaders. The conflict lasted for two years before ending with the signing of a peace agreement in November 2022. Many atrocities and war crimes were committed by both parties during the conflict, such as burying wounded alive, staging bodies, raping women, and thousands of civilians fell victim to bombing and targeting. About 2 million citizens were displaced in the region, living in famine conditions, diseases spread, and many fleeing across borders to neighboring countries carrying horrifying testimonies of what happened. About 80 crossed the border into eastern Sudan early in 2020.
On November 23, 2021, a report by BBC and another by the European Center for Peace on April 12, 2021, addressed the active role played by social media in spreading false news and incitement speech leading to ethnic and tribal violence to fuel the conflict in Ethiopia, with Facebook taking the lions share of over 80%. Although the number of Facebook users does not exceed 10% of Ethiopias population, the use of local language in a lot of mockery and comedic videos, which are still ongoing, contributed to deepening the regional and ethnic divide Ethiopia is experiencing today, to the extent that Meta removed a post published on the official Prime Ministers account on the Facebook platform and placed restrictions on the account for violating platform standards and contributing to spreading hate speech.
In Sudan, it seems that early reports of the spread of hate speech, incitement to violence, and discrimination did not receive their fair share of attention. Reports from the Anti-Discrimination and Hate Speech Conference by the Right for Peace organization, much like my friend Yilmas conversation, also did not receive much attention. Here, war rages in Sudan, accompanied by widespread dissemination of hate speech and discrimination, with specialized platforms spreading fake news. Just as war has brought tragedy to Sudanese today, with killings and displacement, the devil, as Yilma called it, has also played a significant role in deepening societal divisions and fueling media campaigns for war parties, threatening the unified Sudan we know.
Similarly, a report from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligences Risk Analysis Office on February 5, 2024, categorized Sudan and Ethiopia together under one classification of intrastate turmoil threatening international security and peace. It also highlighted the spread of terrorist groups in the Sudanese situation.
Advanced democratic countries have not been immune to the risks of the proliferation of violent and hateful group speech, as evidenced by groups storming government buildings in the Brazilian capital, Rio de Janeiro, and the Capitol Hill incident on January 6, 2021, and widely circulated videos on Facebook on February 5, 2024, showing President Biden inappropriately touching his granddaughter, accompanied by a BBC overlay, amid the ongoing election campaign in the US.
Given the global extent of this phenomenon, the UN Office for Human Rights has established a special office for experts in combating hate speech and violence on social media, categorizing hate speech as a global threat. This was accompanied by an announcement on the UN media site, where the expert committee called on major social media technology companies to change their working regulations to align with human rights, prioritize them over profits, and not tolerate violations that undermine human rights and basic principles of justice and transparency recognized in UN resolutions, Security Council decisions, and relevant international treaties. The committee also called on companies to develop a clear plan and timeline for implementing the required changes, and based on what these companies provide, the approach to dealing with them will be determined.
Finally, to my friend Yilma, I wonder, through these measures, are we getting closer to the beginning of knowing how to deal with or coexist with the devil that is wreaking havoc on our countries and threatening the world today? Lets wait and see.
