Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter failed election integrity test in Kenya’s elections
On October 25th, Kenya held their general elections for the presidential seat (The President of the Republic of Kenya) and at least 240 seats in the National Assembly. The elections were extremely close with a ruling of victory for President Uhuru Kenyatta, who won 50.8% to 48%. However, opposition leader Raila Odinga challenged Kenyatta’s victory. Five days after the election another vote was scheduled but it was cancelled before it began due to protests over electoral commission irregularities. This sparked clashes between protesters and police that left at least 24 people dead.
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Facebook, TikTok and Twitter failed to prevent hate speech, misinformation and foreign interference during Kenya’s elections
Facebook, as well as other social media platforms like TikTok and Twitter failed to provide accountability for hate speech and misinformation during the elections. Facebook announced a partnership with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) to support their efforts in sharing verified information about the elections but did not follow through with it. Facebook was also directly accused of censoring the opposition party by removing their videos. A study published by The Citizen Lab revealed how a network of fake accounts were being used to spread propaganda on Twitter. Despite being aware that there were fraudulent accounts on their platform they continued to allow them to continue posting content.
Hate discourse during the elections was rampant on Facebook. The spread of misinformation and hate speech on social media platforms caused anger and violence in the country. The Republic of Kenya’s Information and Communication Act regulates hate speech, so it is illegal to broadcast or distribute any information through radio, television or any other means that is likely to promote hatred against any persons based on their race, ethnicity, religion, gender or disability. The United Nations (UN) has a set of guidelines and principles regarding the promotion of peace by the media during elections as well. According to these guidelines, social media platforms need to be highly vigilant during elections as they are prone to violence due to potential political manipulation.
Facebook failed to prevent hate speech and fake news from being spread on their platform while they were aware of it. They also failed to comply with the regulations put in place by the Kenyan government. There are laws against hate speech, which Facebook should be familiar with as they have been a target of this type of criticism in the past similar to their biggest competitor, Twitter. The United Nations has also shared how social media platforms should maintain neutrality during elections and monitor for the spread of misinformation and negative campaign. Despite being aware that fake accounts were spreading false information on Twitter they continued to allow them to continue posting content.
The spread of misinformation was prevalent during Kenya’s election. The Facebook page “Mwai Kibaki, the Protector” was accused of spreading misinformation. The page posted a video on August 15th criticizing Odinga for founding a university in Dubai and not his home country, Kenya. The video was viewed more than 500,000 times and liked more than 55,000 times within two days of it being uploaded to Facebook. Prior to the election political tension between the two factions of opposition had reached a high point and this video began spreading in an aggressive manner. On September 5th there were riots in Kisumu that left one person dead and 100 people injured due to the spread of misinformation on Facebook.
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