Like Twitter did to Buhari, Facebook deletes ‘inciting’ post of Ethiopian PM

Facebook has deleted a post by Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, for violating its policies against inciting violence.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Ahmed had asked citizens to take up arms to block the advance of rebel group, Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

The prime minister had asked Ethiopians “to temporarily hold occasional affairs, organise and march through legal manner with every weapon and power/might in order to prevent, reverse and bury the terrorist TPLF”.

He made the post after the rebels seized control of more towns in the country.

The conflict between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF escalated in November 2020 when the rebel forces seized military bases in Tigray, a northern region.

Abiy, in response, sent more troops into Tigray but the TPLF said the government and its allies launched a “coordinated attack” against its fighters and that parts of its capital city were attacked by soldiers.

Thousands of people have reportedly been killed and more than 2.5 million forced to flee their homes since the conflict started.

A spokesperson for Facebook told BBC that the post was removed for violating its policies.

“We were made aware of a post by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister and removed this for violating our policies against inciting and supporting violence,” the spokesperson said.

“At Meta, we remove content from individuals or organizations that violates our community standards, no matter who they are.”

This is not the first time a social media platform will remove the post of a world leader.

In June, Twitter removed President Muhammadu Buhari’s post where he threatened to treat Nigerians “misbehaving” in “the language they understand”.

The federal government subsequently suspended the operation of Twitter in the country.