{"id":1710,"date":"2021-09-13T06:58:40","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T06:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp"},"modified":"2021-09-13T07:02:05","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T07:02:05","slug":"ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia to build local rival to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Liberia<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Addis Ababa \u2013 Ethiopia has begun developing its own social media platform to rival Facebook , Twitter and Whatsapp, though it does not plan to block the global services, the state communications security agency said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia has been engulfed since last year in an armed conflict pitting the federal government against the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the Tigray region in the country\u2019s north.<\/p>\n

Supporters of both sides have waged a parallel war of words on social media.<\/p>\n

The government wants its local platform to \u201creplace\u201d Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and Zoom, the director general of the Information Network Security Agency (INSA), Shumete Gizaw, said.<\/p>\n

Shumete accused Facebook of deleting posts and user accounts which he said were \u201cdisseminating the true reality about Ethiopia\u201d.<\/p>\n

International human rights groups have criticized the Ethiopian government for unexplained shutdowns to social media services including Facebook and WhatsApp in the past year. The government has not commented on those shutdowns.<\/p>\n

Facebook\u2019s Africa spokesperson, Kezia Anim-Addo, declined to comment on Ethiopia\u2019s plans and did not respond immediately to a query about Shumete\u2019s accusations.<\/p>\n

But in June, days before national elections, Facebook said it had removed a network of fake accounts in Ethiopia targeting domestic users which it linked to individuals associated with INSA, which is responsible for monitoring telecommunications and the internet.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for Twitter and Zoom did not immediately reply to comment requests.<\/p>\n

Shumete declined to specify a timeline, budget and other details, but told Reuters: \u201cThe rationale behind developing technology with local capacity is clear \u2026 Why do you think China is using WeChat?\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Ethiopia had the local expertise to develop the platforms and would not hire outsiders to help.<\/p>\n

Social messaging app WeChat is owned by China-headquartered Tencent Holdings, is widely used in the country, and is considered to be a strong tool by Chinese authorities for monitoring its population.<\/p>\n

Shumete also referred Reuters to comments he made on Friday to a local media outlet in which he accused Facebook of blocking users who were \u201cpreaching national unity and peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also told Al-Ain Amharic that authorities were working on the platform to replace Facebook and Twitter, while a trial has already been completed of a platform to replace WhatsApp and Zoom and that platform will soon be operational.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. Addis Ababa \u2013 Ethiopia has begun developing its own social media platform to rival Facebook , Twitter and Whatsapp, though it does not plan to block the global services, the state communications security agency said on Monday. Ethiopia has been engulfed since last year in an armed conflict pitting the federal government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,16],"tags":[233,237,562,234,563],"class_list":["post-1710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-liberia","tag-south-africa"],"yoast_head":"\nEthiopia to build local rival to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Addis Ababa \u2013 Ethiopia has begun developing its own social media platform to rival Facebook , Twitter and Whatsapp, thou ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ethiopia to build local rival to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Addis Ababa \u2013 Ethiopia has begun developing its own social media platform to rival Facebook , Twitter and Whatsapp, thou ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-13T06:58:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-13T07:02:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2021\/09\/img-613ef74dd7019.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ethiopia to build local rival to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-13T06:58:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-13T07:02:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp\"},\"wordCount\":398,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2021\/09\/img-613ef74dd7019.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"Liberia\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/ethiopia-to-build-local-rival-to-facebook-twitter-and-whatsapp\",\"name\":\"Ethiopia to build local rival to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp - 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