Addis Ababa (AFP)
Ethiopia intends to develop its own social media platforms to compete with US sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the country's intelligence and cybersecurity agency said.
Ethiopia wants to be "self-sufficient" in the area of its communications, the director general of the Information Network Security Agency (Insa), Shumete Gizaw, told UAE online media Al-Ain in Amharic version.
"The challenge we face now is that social media platforms have become tools of political strategies," Shumete said in an interview with Al-Ain published on Tuesday.
Ethiopia has been embroiled for nearly a year in a conflict with regional authorities in northern Tigray, which has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands of people living in near famine.
As the conflict spreads, the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) wage a merciless propaganda war, each accusing the other of lies and disinformation.
"Important and truthful Ethiopian messages are quickly suppressed by Facebook and Twitter," Shumete accused.
“What is good for us is at least to develop our own systems at the national level which can replace Facebook and Twitter and we are working on it,” he said without giving further details.
In June, Facebook deleted dozens of Ethiopian accounts, which it described as bogus linked to Insa, ahead of the general election that saw Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's party win a landslide.
Insa was created in 2008 by Abiy Ahmed, who started his military career as a radio operator.
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