Ethiopia’s Hate Speech Predicament: Seeking Antidotes Beyond a Legislative Response

Abstract

ABSTRACTAfter waves of public protests that denounced long-time ruling party the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, Ethiopia has experienced a political transformation that, among other things, lifted restrictions on political speech and freed prisoners of conscience. While the transformative potential of social networking sites across the nation in keeping the momentum of the protests was evident, the rise of displacements, killings, and violence amplified by ethno-nationalist discriminatory discourses on platforms such as Facebook created a fervent debate on the role of the state in regulating hate speech online. By analyzing data primarily generated from interviews with government officials, members of civil society organizations, journalists, human rights advocates, and freedom of speech activists, this study charts the promises, parameters, and challenges of Ethiopia’s hate speech and disinformation bill. Findings indicate the Ethiopian government’s alarm bell on the rise of hate speech in social networking sites and the need for an intervention to counter this threat is warranted. However, informants expressed serious concerns about the government’s choice of intervention in the form of a legislative response by highlighting the bill’s definitional/procedural gaps as well as its potential to undermine freedom of speech, the government’s track record of abusing similar bills in the past to crackdown on legitimate expressions of dissent, and lack of implementation capacity. The study concludes by offering a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder, long-term approach in addition to a legislative response to minimize occurrences as well as impacts of hate speech.