The Ethiopian government says it has filed a complaint with Twitter, claiming the social media giant has been suspending accounts that criticise the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a rebel group it has been fighting in a year-long conflict.
In this dust-up, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the TPLF rebel group are using social media to shape the narrative of their conflict.
Billene Seyoum Woldeyes, Foreign Press Secretary for the Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, in a Tuesday press conference, also accused the international community of not paying enough attention to people affected by the TPLF invasion in Afar and Amhara regional states.
Eritrea, which has been in support of Abiy through the conflict, complained on Tuesday that Twitter suspended the New Africa Institute and its executive director, Simon Tesfamariam, for echoing Ethiopian and Eritrean government talking points regarding the war.
She said: “Attempts to silence pro-Ethiopia voices and propping up of pro-TPLF narratives are seen. We have reasons to believe that Twitter is targeting and suspending voices that are raising awareness about the TPLF’s atrocities and its lies which we have shared with their policy team.
“Some mainstream western media are obviously dominated by an anti-Ethiopian Government perspective. Such a trend has been repeatedly utilized in many countries where media was used to effectively demonize governments and their leaders in order to facilitate regime change.”
According to her, overabundant rhetoric is constantly coming back that assistance is only needed for the Tigray region, which is not so.
She added that “due to the escalation of the conflict by the TPLF into Amhara region more than 1.1 million people have been displaced. In total, more than 5.6 million people affected by the conflict are at present in need of emergency food assistance by the government, partners, local communities as well as private actors.”
