new tactics in hate speech
and no tolerance for questions
Hi there,
I’m sending this edition from back in Addis Abeba, where the sun I have soaked in over the past couple of weeks will hopefully keep me warm for the next few days (until it’s back to wearing socks round the clock).
Due to travel and other (recurring) factors that are unnamed here, this edition will be short.
My name is Maya Misikir, and I’m a freelance reporter based in Addis Abeba. I write Sifter, this newsletter where I send out the week’s top 5 stories on human rights and news in Ethiopia.
Now, to the news.
Online safety: bypassing detection using Amharic
Researchers found that women are being pushed off the online space in Ethiopia in fear of and because of the repercussions of being vocal.
I wrote about this last year in May, when researchers conducted the assessment across Telegram, Facebook and X, and again last month, when they did a second round, this time on two new platforms: YouTube and TikTok. Long story short, they’ve concluded that, ‘there is no platform that feels safe for women in Ethiopia.’
Another group of researchers at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue are now saying that Amharic (Ethiopia’s working language) is being used to ‘evade hate speech detection’. This is because of ‘the gaps in the platform’s content moderation systems’, according to a story by Addis Standard.
While the ‘inequalities in the resources platforms allocate to different languages’ are clear, this study shows tactics used to ‘bypass moderation’; one is to place an Amharic word next to the English one (the moderation system doesn’t recognize this).
The other tactic identified used was, ‘directly translating hate speech into Amharic using the Ge’ez script’.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
The study also found that similar tactics were being used in other “low-resource” languages, including Punjabi, Nepali, Konkani, and Tigrinya, suggesting that “bad actors are innovating and exploiting this vulnerability.”
The full story on Addis Standard, here.
Politics: when was the last time this happened?
An opposition political party member from Ethiopia’s Benishangul Gumuz region is in jail for…voicing opposition. Yohannes Tessema, a member of the Boro Democratic Party, was jailed last Sunday after he and three other council members challenged a change to the region’s constitution, according to a story on Ethiopia Insider.
What constitutional change? Last month, a change to Benishangul Gumuz’s regional constitution (dealing with increasing council seats from 99 to 165) was passed by the region’s council members.
Why did Yohannes and his two council members oppose this change? They say that the mandate to make these changes, which have shifted the number of electoral districts and seats, falls either with the National Election Board of Ethiopia or the House of Federation.
Yohannes was initially apprehended at the airport, while about to board the plane to Addis Abeba to attend a hearing with the Council of Constitutional Inquiry, where the petition had been filed. He was taken to his house for a brief time before being taken away by police again, this time to jail.
Was this out of the blue? No, the region’s communication bureau had been posting thinly veiled threats in the days leading up to his arrest.
Most notably, after the party members voiced their opposition to the constitutional amendments, the Benishangul Gumuz government’s communication bureau warned that Boro (the opposition party) was trying to restart conflict and that necessary steps will be taken to maintain order.
Yohannes was arrested despite having immunity as a member in the region’s council. The last time he was arrested was during the 2021 general elections, adds the story.
The full story, where most of this update was sourced from, in Amharic, on Ethiopia Insider, here.
Security: we don’t know her (XL)
Six trucks, carrying sesame from Ethiopia’s Amhara region to Djibouti, were burned down, caught in the continued crossfire between the federal government and the region’s informal militia, Fano.
This is the fortieth update I am writing on this conflict in Amhara, which took off in August 2023. Since then, heavy fighting between has killed and displaced civilians, and thrown the region into a deep humanitarian crisis.
The attack on the trucks, which were en route to Bahir Dar (the region’s capital), resulted in the death of one driver, and the injury of several others, according to a story by Addis Standard.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
A single truck carries at least 400 quintals of sesame. Currently, one quintal of sesame is being sold for around 10,000 birr. When you consider the scale of destruction, the financial losses amount to millions..
The full story on Addis Standard, here.
Migration: it’s not getting any better
More than 180 people are missing after four boats sank off the coast of Djibouti and Yemen last Thursday. The boats were carrying migrants, most of whom are believed to be Ethiopian, according to a story on The New Arab.
I have written about this route they have taken, known as the Eastern Route, in past editions; people travel by foot and boat, from Ethiopia, through Somalia or Djibouti, into and through Yemen, and often to Saudi Arabia.
Two of the boats were ‘missing off the coast of Yemen’, while the other two, ‘capsized due to strong winds off the coast of Djibouti,’ according to the story.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
"The number of people arriving in Yemen from Ethiopia and Djibouti is unfortunately not decreasing," Esoev said.
He added many migrants undertaking the route originated from Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, ravaged by war between 2020 and 2022.
The full story, on The New Arab, here.
Culture: a legend retires
Anyone who listens to Ethiopian music is bound to have come across, know, or love Mahmoud Ahmed.
Mahmoud, is ‘a national icon, a living legend whose music has provided a soundtrack to almost every era of modern Ethiopian history’. I interviewed him at his house in January, while he was preparing for his final concert (he’s 83!).
I asked him if there was ever a time he was nervous (yes, but he never needed ‘liquid courage’ to get him through), if he has a favorite song (Tizita), and which up and coming artist he likes (Dawit Tsige).
Here’s an excerpt from the story I covered for The Continent:
Mahmoud was born in 1941, to parents who came from rural Gurage, in the Central Ethiopia Region.
He spent his young years listening to beloved singers like Bizunesh Bekele and Tilahun Gessesse – later, they would be friends, and sing alongside each other. But this future was difficult to imagine as he cycled through various odd jobs: busboy, handyman, shoe-shiner.
I attended his last concert in January and the story has highlights on that experience (powerful), the impact of his music on pop culture (6 decades of work!), and his surprising answer to how he would like to be remembered. You can find the full story, here.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
In the meantime, feel free to share this with anyone you think can benefit from keeping up with what’s going on in Ethiopia.
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thank you, Maya. 🙏🏾