ADDIS ABABA – While it is important for Ethiopia to have a social media law in order to tackle hate speeches, the effort to enact the law that would govern social media should be carried out carefully, according to legal expert.
Speaking to The Ethiopian Herald, Kumelachew Dagne, Legal Practitioner and member of the Advisory Council for Legal and Justice Affairs, stated this in conjugation to the complexity, vague nature of the subject, and the current regulating capacity of the country.
On one side, he said, those people who write and post content on social media do so on an assumed identity. “They may not even be writing from Ethiopia.” Thus, even if it is said that they have committed crime or caused harm, it will be hard to gather evidence/ information and prosecute the said offenders. Even at the current techno logical level, it will be difficult to regulate the issue, he argued.
Kumelachew said that on current regulation capacity of Ethiopia, it will be very difficult for the country to fully govern the platform. “Not only Ethiopia, even highly developed countries are finding it difficult to social media.” Some of them try to manage the communication platform by working collaboratively with owners of Facebook, twitter. But given that such move might have implications on freedom of speech and right to privacy, the whole area demands painstaking caveat, he noted.
“Nevertheless, we [the Council] have reached an agreement that laws that are needed to control social media should be enacted. And we know that the Office of the Attorney General is working on it.”
The other thing that must be seen in relation to this, he opined, is enacting a code of conduct in order to curb narratives disseminated by the mainstream media, especially broadcast Media, that are dividing and have the potential to create rift and conflict between various people. By making them accountable for breaching the code of conduct, it will have huge role in remedying the issue, Kumelachew concluded.
The Ethiopian Herald, January 16/2019
By Robel Yohannes
