Faizel Patel – 24/08/2021

Ethiopia’s state communications security agency says the country has begun developing its own social media platform to rival Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, though it does not plan to block the global services.

Ethiopia has been engulfed since last year in an armed conflict pitting the federal government against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which controls the Tigray region in the country’s north.

Al Jazeera reports that supporters of both sides have waged a parallel war of words on social media.

Director general of the Information Network Security Agency Shumete Gizaw says the government wants its local platform to “replace” Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Zoom.

Shumete accused Facebook of deleting posts and user accounts which he said were “disseminating the true reality about Ethiopia”.

International human rights groups have criticised the Ethiopian government for unexplained shutdowns to social media services including Facebook and WhatsApp in the past year.

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)