By Mabinty M. Kamara
The School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in collaboration with a Sierra Leone civi society Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD), has launched a book on the use of social media in Africa.
The book is titled “Social Media and Politics in Africa; Democracy Censorship and Security”.
Thomas Molony, one of the authors said the book had already been launched in Europe and that they chose to launch it in Sierra Leone on behalf of the entire African continent.
“Today’s launch is for the African continent. The book has recently been launched in Europe but it is being launched here in Freetown for the entire Africa,” he said.
He said the research for the book, covered countries like Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania Senegal, Zimbabwe and other countries as part of the Social Media and Security in Africa Project.
He said the objective was to promote Africa-based CSOs working on issues involving countering incendiary speeches online, as well as to encourage users to enhance security for everyone rather than use social media to incite violence.
Social media played a pivotal role during Sierra Leone 2018 general elections. While many relied on it to provide information and promote peace and cohesion, some others also used it as a tool to promote propaganda, hate and misinformation.
In her presentation, Dr. Maggie Dwyer, Co-Author of the book who specifically dealt with a chapter on the role of WhatsApp in Sierra Leone’s 2018 general elections, said Sierra Leone was one of the countries with the lowest social media uses recording 16% of the total population, but noted that it had one of the fastest growing social media users in the world at large.
During the study, Dr Dwyer said they consulted stakeholders like the Independent Media Commission, civil society bodies, National Electoral Commission and others.
As part of their findings, Dwyer said: “Sierra Leone has the 4th lowest internet usage level in the world but one of the fastest growth rates on the continent, from 2017-2018, 16% of the population uses social media. With Whatssap being the most used”.
He said that much as people were excited to use social media to get and share information about the elections, there were skepticism about the truth and credibility of some of the information shared as most users tended to deliberately share misleading information about their opposing parties, making references to press releases that were ascribed to certain parties who would end up denying its authenticity.
Dwyer said their study showed that the National Grand Coalition Party (NGC) made use of social media more effectively than any other political party during the campaign period.
Abu Brima, Executive Director Network Movement for Justice and Development noted a link between the work of his organization and that of the Social Media and Security in Africa project and made reference to some of the pillars in the recently launched 25-year Strategic Direction document such as Building Strong Communities and Accountable Governance which he said effective social media usage could facilitate.
Brima said they were hoping to inspire people to use social media rightly in demanding for accountability.
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