Social media hate speech in the walk of Ethiopian political reform: analysis of hate speech prevalence, severity, and natures

It is evident in this study that the social media sphere which has been highly controlled by the Ethiopian government for a long seems to untie right after the advent of the new political reform commenced in 2018. Following the transition, it is apparent that people are relatively enjoying the freedom of expression. On the contrary, the new digital platform is deemed to be subdued by the emergence of hate speech which is attributed to political, ethnic, and religious underpinnings. The study employs a quantitative approach to analyze users' comments collected from rivalry ethnic-based Television channels' Facebook and YouTube. Using a binary analysis, a substantial prevalence of social media hate speech is found. Mainly ethnic, religious, and political-based hate natures are also found. Most of the hate comments are offensive; however, a few comments are laid on incitement to violence, and genocide severity levels. Contesting memory of the past, associating ethnicity with religion, culture, and language issues are the main triggering factors of hate speech in Ethiopia. The online commenters imitate the offline ethnic tension in the country that upsurge during the political reform. Thus, identity-driven hate speech in tandem with the reform incidents has suffocated the Ethiopian social media.