Engaging in polarized society: Social media and political discourse in Ethiopia

Abstract

Focusing on two online campaigns - one initiated by the Ethiopian blogging collective known as Zone9 and demanding the Ethiopian government to #RespectTheConstitution, and the other asking to #FreeZone9Bloggers, once some of the bloggers were arrested and accused of terrorism - this chapter examines opportunities and contradictions of digital activism in closed regimes. After having analysed the content of the two campaigns, their local and global ramifications, and the reactions they provoked among national and international actors, we explain how 1) the framing of digital media as powerful and potentially revolutionary political agents may act as a ‘self-impairing prophecy’, reducing the chances they may actually serve to produce lasting political change. At the same time, the comparative analysis of the two campaigns also indicates how 2) the recurrent accusations moved by the government to political opponents to act on behalf of ‘external agents’ and use digital media to threaten national stability, may act as ‘self-fulfilling prophecies’, creating a network of global solidarity around digital activists who, despite having begun their journey to promote change locally, are progressively brought into the ambit of a more global (and often Western) discourse of ‘digital activism’.