Ethiopia begins developing its own social media platform to compete with Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Zoom. It doesn’t, however, plan to block the global services, the state communications security agency said on Monday.
The federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the country’s north, have been engaged in an armed conflict since last year.
Both sides have waged a parallel war of words on social media.
According to Reuters, the director general of the Information Network Security Agency (INSA), Shumete Gizaw said the government wants its local platform to “replace” Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and Zoom.
Shumete claimed Facebook had removed posts that disseminated the “true realities of Ethiopia.”
Ethiopian government has been criticized for unexplained shutdowns of social media services such as Facebook and WhatsApp in the past year, including by international human rights groups.
A Facebook spokesperson for Africa, Kezia Anim-Addo, declined to comment on Ethiopia’s plans. She also did not address Shumete’s accusations immediately, Reuters reported.
According to Statista, Ethiopia has about 6 million Facebook users.