Failure of Governance, State Legitimacy, and Hate Speech in Ethiopia

Abstract

Despite social media has supplied a great role in bringing the current political landscape of Ethiopia, a couple of months after PM Dr. Abiy took hold of power, hate speech on social media has become common. This has made the government police social media by drafting laws on hate speech since April 2019. This study has the objective of exploring the interplay between spoil political system, government legitimacy and hate speech on social media. This study adopted qualitative research approach. Data has been gathered data from social media e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram. Different pages and informal discussions were important tools of data collection. From the findings, the author concludes with the argument that laws are not effective to end hate speech, but can be done by bringing legitimate government, good governance, equality, and justice to the country.