Twitter today announced that it has closed nearly 3 accounts worldwide that "published pro-government propaganda" in six countries, including Tanzania and Uganda.
While, like all other American social media giants, Twitter has come under heavy criticism for its inability to tackle hate speech on its platform, the little blue bird has opted for a new wave of censorship. This time, China, Russia, Uganda and Tanzania are paying the price.
Jack Dorsey's company has never hidden its bias in the sovereign policy of African states. Latest scandal, the standoff between Twitter and Nigeria, after the deletion of a publication by President Muhammadu Buhari. Twitter was suspended in the country and the Nigerian Ministry of Information managed to impose its conditions on Twitter before lifting the ban on the social network in the country. A ban which cost Jack Dorsey dearly.
Twitter has, this time, benefited from a new wave of deletions. In all, 3 accounts were affected. While more than 465 of the deleted accounts supposedly belonged to the Chinese Communist Party and carried out anti-Uyghur propaganda, Twitter also deleted 2 accounts posting content favorable to the National Resistance Movement (NRM), the party of Ugandan President Yoweri Museven, and 000 accounts associated with the last Tanzanian presidential campaign, which culminated in the victory of the late John Magufuli and his running mate - and current president - Samia Suluhu Hassan.
In Uganda, Twitter states that they "removed a network of 418 accounts engaged in coordinated inauthentic activity in support of Ugandan presidential incumbent Museveni and his party, National Resistance Movement (NRM)."
- Maria Burnett (@_MariaBurnett) December 2, 2021
Jack Dorsey's political choices
Regarding the Tanzanian accounts, Twitter statements question. On its blog, the social network claims that the accounts were "used to publish bad faith reports, targeting members and supporters of FichuaTanzania and its founder." There is no doubt that these posts were written by the Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party or by its supporters.
But what surprises is the bias of Twitter: by targeting the CCM, the social network leaves the opposition movement FichuaTanzania the possibility of continuing to publish, via its own accounts, without disturbing Twitter. However, by observing the content, we quickly notice that the movement "of civil society and the defense of human rights" is a propaganda tool that attacks the president and promotes the leader of the opposition, Freeman Mbowe . The latter is however accused of having planned terrorist attacks as part of an abortive coup.
In Africa, do you have to be an opponent to slip through the cracks launched by Twitter? Or at least be on Jack Dorsey's side. Because the boss of the social network has African ambitions: he wants to develop Square Crypto, an initiative that aims to strengthen the bitcoin ecosystem on the African continent. At the end of 2019, Dorsey had made an African tour that took him to Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. The boss of Twitter then announced his intention to settle "three to six months" in Africa - before asserting that it was a mistake. He had above all promised Nigeria to open its African base there, before opting at the last moment for Ghana. Since then, between Nigeria and Twitter, it is the war.
But it is also the neutrality of Twitter that raises questions: Jack Dorsey has regularly engaged politically against regimes in Africa. He had notably supported publications of the Nigerian social movement #EndSars. Twitter has since made its rule: African states have become easy prey to practice censorship that does not meet any specific rule.
Twitter, a neocolonialism that does not speak its name?
In Uganda, the deletion of 418 accounts allegedly "engaged in coordinated inauthentic activity" in favor of President Yoweri Museveni and his party, the NRM, raises as much concern as the Twitter clean-up in Tanzania.
Observers particularly deplore the timing of this wave of suppression: Uganda is, at the moment, fully engaged in a military campaign on its borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo against the ADF armed group. The deletion of several accounts minimizes the significance of the Ugandan state's statements, at a crucial time in the authorities' fight against terrorism.
Last January, Uganda had blocked access to Facebook after the American giant had closed more than 20 pages. The Ugandan government is likely to react similarly to the recent Twitter provocation.
Barely, is Twitter adopting, little by little, the same behavior as Facebook vis-à-vis States? The blue bird is now in any case as the slayer of secessionists and rebel groups. At the same time, it tries to weaken the communication of States.
After his setbacks with Nigeria and South Africa, Jack Dorsey risks losing ground in Tanzania and Uganda. And it is its entire African strategy that risks suffering: by systematically supporting the oppositions and by trying to muzzle the rulers, Twitter, like Facebook, has more and more the image of a dictatorial network and pushes the Africa to reflect on a new model fully integrated into a scheme of digital sovereignty.