Prominent Ethiopian politician Jawar Mohammed warns that Ethiopia’s ruling Prosperity Party plans to use its ‘social media army’ to incite a horizontal conflict in a bid to cling to power. In an exposé posted on his Facebook page, Jawar shared a screenshot of a Telegram group reportedly used by Oromia Prosperity Party to coordinate its “social media army.”
A message shared in the Telegram group instructs all members to change the names of at least 10 Facebook pages they own with Amharic names, providing a list of names such as “Dembelash Damte,” “Ambachew Temesgen,” and “Workitu Dessalegn” as examples. The order also requires members to submit their real names, phone numbers, and links to the newly created Amharic pages once they carry out the task.
Jawar, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government, said the directive’s intent is “obvious” and urged caution, adding “People on all sides need to be vigilant.”
A BBC investigation on April 19, 2024, had revealed the Prosperity Party’s “social media army” uses platforms such as Facebook to defame critics, spread misinformation, hate speech and pro-Abiy propaganda. Led by government officials, the ‘Social Media Army’ uses administrative structures to run its operations through WhatsApp and Telegram, the BBC investigation shows.
Similarly, Meta (formerly Facebook) removed a network of accounts, pages, and groups in Ethiopia on June 16, 2021, for ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’. The network, which targeted domestic audiences with pro-government content, had about 1.1 million followers and was linked to Ethiopia’s Information Network Security Agency (INSA). The operation, which involved fake accounts posing as media entities, spent around $7,200 on ads.