Ethiopia: Twitter suspends Tigrayan accounts

Ethiopia: Twitter suspends Tigrayan accounts
Parag Agrawal, Twitter Chief Executive Officer. [Photo: Gulf Business]

Twitter has announced the suspension of hundreds of accounts belonging to Tigrayan supporters on grounds of policy violation.

The BBC reported Friday that the pro-Tigray People’s Liberation Front acknowledged losing followers while others failed to access their accounts.

The social media giant said in a statement to the BBC that the suspension was part of its efforts to keep conversations safe on the platform.

“This is in line with our continued efforts to protect the safety of the conversation on Twitter related to the ongoing situation in Ethiopia,” Twitter was quoted to have said.

Social media companies have come under scrutiny for fuelling the crisis in Ethiopia by letting hate speech slip uncensored.

Last year, Facebook was criticized for prioritizing profit over the safety of its users. Facebook groups and pages that post incitement to violence in Ethiopia were not suspended.

In October 2021, Frances Haugen, then Facebook data scientist, resigned from her position over Facebook’s data management policy saying “lives were in danger”.

“I did what I thought was necessary to save the lives of people, especially in the global south, who I think are being endangered by Facebook’s prioritisation of profits over people. If I hadn’t brought those documents forward that was never going to come to light,” she told The Guardian.

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