DRC: political scientists launch Politoscope to fight against online hate speech
A network of Congolese political scientists launched Politoscope at the beginning of March to combat hate speech on social networks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This monitoring and awareness tool on verbal cyberviolence was concocted after the campaign for the general elections of December 2023, particularly marked by hate speech.
Listen - 01:24
The general election campaign was at times marred by hate speech. Here, supporters of outgoing President Félix Tshisekedi consult a “smartphone” during the publication of the provisional results of the election, December 31, 2023 (illustration). © Glody Murhabazi / AFP
By: RFI Follow
Advertisement
Read more
With our correspondent in Kinshasa,
Aurélie Bazzara-Kibangula
In a cramped room in a study center, eleven analysts have their eyes glued to their computers. All are part of the Politoscope project, a tool for monitoring political speeches on the social network X (formerly Twitter), which screens a thousand accounts of
Congolese personalities
.
“
We have several categories: local actors, influencers, political actors, media. We can reach 200
tweets per day, explains data analyst Steve Mkusu.
When there are 200
tweets
, there are not 200
comments
: each
tweet
has its comments and this is where the work becomes a little hard. There are a lot of threats, insults, etc.
»
Violent speeches
are
listed in a database. A daily report is then published, because the objective is to clean up political debates after an electoral campaign marked by hate speech.
“
For politicians, the page is over, but for society, this violence remains diffuse
,” summarizes Christian Moleka, initiator of Politoscope.
This
problem of “
congolity
”
[arising from a bill which wanted to prohibit access to the functions of president and other sovereign functions to Congolese with a foreign parent – Editor’s note]
and candidates from abroad remain in society today 'today. How do we try to regulate this, to bring the Congolese back to good practices, to return to a form of verbal de-escalation, to re-discuss very healthy values, that is to say respect for others
? »
It remains to be seen whether the names of account holders placed under surveillance can be published or whether they must be blurred: the initiators of the project are awaiting the opinion of lawyers.
Speeches to “
impose a nationalist character
”, explains Dypol
This tool was created after violence reached a record level during the last electoral campaign, according to the think tank Dynamics of Congolese political scientists (Dypol). According to these analysts, this campaign was marked by
hate and ultranationalist speeches
, explains Christian Joseph Atale, his secretary general of Dypol (dynamic of Congolese political scientists).
00:46
“Political actors wanted to impose a nationalist character and have the masses behind their cause”, with “unprecedented verbal violence”, explains Christian Joseph Atale, secretary general of the Dynamics of Congolese political scientists (Dypol)
Aurélie Bazzara
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your inbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Share :
Continue reading on the same themes:
DRC
Social networks