Social Media and Electoral Law Violation in Cameroon: The Case of the 2018 Presidential Election

Abstract

Most presidential elections in Africa, especially in the central African sub-region have always ended up in some form of violence. Ever since the social media became a key tool in elections including those organize in African countries, it has been used as a platform to either decrease or escalate election violence, given its characteristics. The social media is not regulated, the law governing its use is difficult to enforce, everybody can create contents, it has a wider reach and it can be used to spread information instantly. The 2018 presidential election in Cameroon was marked by violence. The violence was blamed partly on the way the social media was used by different actors during the 2018 presidential election. This paper examines how the social media was used by actors of the election to violate the electoral code. The theoretical assumptions of this research are based on agenda setting which deals with the prioritization of stories or issues, their treatment and their place in the media. The paper used a quantitative research approach. A total of 176 questionnaires were distributed to voters. They were based in Douala and Buea. Key the findings reveal that social media was used to violate the electoral code during the 2018 election as 103 (58.5%) respondents received or read campaign messages before the official campaign. The findings equally reveal that the social media was used to spread fake news, and misinformation which played a role to incite and facilitate violence. The implication of this finding is that it will get election stakeholders to understand the dangers of the social media especially during elections and see what needs to be done to make the social media a better tool for election management.