THREAD: Weaponizing of Twitter in 2021 to spread denialism & manufacture consent for mass slaughter in Ethiopia, a mini case study. I bring up social media damage, both to urge @bsky.app to work on preventative mechanisms & to raise awareness of the horrors it has caused, far from western shores. - ThreadSky

zekuzelalem.bsky.social • 96 days ago

THREAD: Weaponizing of Twitter in 2021 to spread denialism & manufacture consent for mass slaughter in Ethiopia, a mini case study. I bring up social media damage, both to urge @bsky.app to work on preventative mechanisms & to raise awareness of the horrors it has caused, far from western shores.

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mushamukad.bsky.social•96 days ago

So important! I can get how social media can flag (say) neo-nazis or KKK writing on social media platforms in English, but how do they have the language and cultural skills to “police” other languages?

mushamukad.bsky.social•96 days ago

And how would they have the cultural knowledge to understand that my saying for eg ‘Yankees suck’ is perfectly benign, while something in an obscure language in Tshuapa is potential incitement?

zekuzelalem.bsky.social•95 days ago

I wouldn't expect them to know that. Which is why I'd like to see moderation become a joint initiative. It's the future of social media, and it has been tested on Mastodon. It's not foolproof, but it can be built on, and it's a huge improvement from the current widely employed model.

mushamukad.bsky.social•95 days ago

Well, i’m happy to help out! Although my kinyaRwanda is a little rusty!

alexjem.bsky.social•91 days ago

I second that.

annapagnacco.com•96 days ago

📌

absolutereality.blog•95 days ago

📌 weaponization of disinfo on Twitter aided a genocide in Ethiopia, calls for Bluesky to have plan for future such disinfo campaigns bc blocklists are insufficient

zekuzelalem.bsky.social•96 days ago

Background: From 2020-2022, the armies of the Ethiopian and Eritrean government carried out a genocide targeting members of Ethiopia's Tigray ethnic group, with over half a million perishing as a result of massacres, but primarily a brutal humanitarian siege that blocked food & medicine deliveries.

zekuzelalem.bsky.social•96 days ago

The death toll being worse than any conflict of the 21st century but was hardly a global talking point. So some of you may have missed the initiative of the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, mobilizing to manufacture consent for their war. Twitter played a critical role. I'll try and show how.

zekuzelalem.bsky.social•96 days ago

This thread focuses primarily on one of the worst atrocities of the conflict: the Nov 2020 Axum massacre.

In the Tigrayan city of Axum, Eritrean soldiers went on a rampage with orders to kill all males. ~400 to 800 civilian men & boys were killed in 3 days.

zekuzelalem.bsky.social•96 days ago

Much of the outside world had initially no idea the Axum massacre had even happened. From 2020-2022, Ethiopia kept phone & internet services severed across the Tigray region, to prevent the flow of evidence of atrocities.

My @reuters.com coverage from 2022, for background on the 2 year blackout.

zekuzelalem.bsky.social•96 days ago

By December, it became pretty clear that something horrible had happened in Axum, although it was hard to say exactly what. Axum natives living abroad began gradually receiving word of the deaths of their loved ones. But there was precious little verified info and no media reports.

zekuzelalem.bsky.social•96 days ago

But as survivors displaced from Axum fled to Sudan & regained internet access, testimony of what they had seen began to make the rounds.

Still, a conflict data entity which describes itself as the "highest quality real time data source" was confident enough to tweet this (later retracted & deleted)

karimala.bsky.social•94 days ago

📌

sojusaki.com•95 days ago

📌

justice4tigray.bsky.social•95 days ago

Thank you @zekuzelalem.bsky.social. It's concerning that the international community, including the #ICC, have overlooked serious allegations of genocidal war and the war crimes
#Justice4TigrayGenocide
#UpholdPretoriaAgreement
https://newlinesinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/20240604-Report-Genocide-in-Tigray-NLISAP_y.pdf

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