24.4 C
Port Louis
Friday, March 29, 2024

Download The App:

Read in French

spot_img

Kenya Orders Facebook To Tackle Hate Speech Or Face Suspension

Must Read

Meta’s Facebook have been given seven days by Kenya’s Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) to tackle hate speech and incitement on the platform relating to next month’s election. If the company fails to adhere, its operations will be suspended.

East Africa’s top economy is witnessing heavy campaigning ahead of presidential, legislative and local authorities’ elections on Aug. 9.

Advocacy group Global Witness said in a report published on Thursday that Facebook had accepted and carried more than a dozen political advertisements that breached Kenya’s rules.

Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) said the report corroborates its own internal findings.

“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, an NCIC commissioner said on Friday.

“The NCIC has held talks with the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK), which regulates social media firms, and it will recommend the suspension of Meta’s operations”, he said.

Makori accused Meta of violating Kenya’s constitution and laws governing hate speech and the use of social media platforms.

“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,” he said.

Meta has taken “extensive steps” to weed out hate speech and inflammatory content, and it is intensifying those efforts ahead of the election, a company spokesperson informed Reuters.

“We have dedicated teams of Swahili speakers and proactive detection technology to help us remove harmful content quickly and at scale,” the spokesperson said.

According to Reuters, The NCIC is a statutory body established to foster ethnic harmony among Kenya’s 45 tribes, some of which have targeted each other with violence in past polls.

- Advertisement -spot_img

More Articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisement -spot_img

Latest Articles