Facebook is facing a suspension in Kenya after it failed another hate speech and incitement detection test, see how it differs from Nigeria’s Twitter ban.. Like Brazil’s WhatsApp request, Kenya’s motive is also related to its upcoming election.
The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) reported that the social media company breached its laws. For example, it accepted paid political advertisement gigs, giving them more reach.
“Facebook is in violation of the laws of our country. They have allowed themselves to be a vector of hate speech and incitement, misinformation and disinformation,” Danvas Makori, a commissioner with the NCIC, said.
In reply to the impending suspension, Facebook has made some moves to appease the government. First, it removed hate speech and inflammatory content for its Kenyan users. This effort is like what it claimed to do following the Capitol riot in the US on January 6, 2021.
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“We have dedicated teams of Swahili speakers and proactive detection technology to help us remove harmful content quickly and at scale,” a company spokesperson told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s threat quickly reminds one of how the Nigerian government suspended Twitter between June 2021 and January 2022. However, the reasons behind both actions are significantly different.
Kenya is making a move because it believes that Facebook is promoting inciting posts that could cause unrest and possibly, violence. In the case of the Nigerian government, it is the opposite; Twitter had deleted Tweets by President Muhammadu Buhari it felt were likely to incite violence.
Yet, despite the difference, the warning statements issued are alike. “This country is bigger than a social media company or an entity. We will not allow Facebook, or any other social media company, to jeopardise security,” Makori had said.
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