Hate Speech and Election Violence in Nigeria

Ezeibe, Christian

doi:10.1177/0021909620951208

Cited by 28 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…Similar concerns over the use of social media as a forum for instigating interethnic tensions were also raised during the 2019 Presidential elections in Nigeria. As the informal system of rotational presidency between the predominantly Muslim / Hausa-Fulani dominated north and Christian / Yoruba-Igbo dominated south collapsed in 2015, political candidates at both the national and local levels have used the rhetoric of inter-ethnic intolerance for the purpose of negative mobilization (Ezeibe, 2020). Rumors attempting to dehumanize opponents and stoke fear of imminent terrorism and violence were spread by the incumbent APC and the opposition PDP and rapidly diffused throughout social media.…”

Section: As the Competition Between Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta And Opposition Coalition Leadermentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile Communication Technology and National Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Choi¹,

Laughlin²,

Schultz³

2021

Preprint

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We examine how the expansion of mobile internet infrastructure affects national identity in sub-Saharan Africa. In diverse societies where elections are contested along ethno-communal lines, we argue that access to mobile internet undermines national identity because it facilitates voter exposure to the polarizing tendencies of internet-based social media and communication platforms. Applying a difference-in-differences design on mobile coverage maps and geocoded survey data of more than 50,000 African citizens, we show that access to mobile internet reduces identification with the nation by up to 5--7 percentage points. To establish support for our electoral mechanism, we exploit as-if random variation in the timing of individuals' survey interviews relative to presidential elections, during which we argue divisive and polarizing forces are at their peak. Our analysis shows that electoral proximity intensifies the negative effect of mobile internet. These findings highlight how technological innovations can inhibit the process of state-building in diverse societies.

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Section: As the Competition Between Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta And Opposition Coalition Leadermentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile Communication Technology and National Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Choi¹,

Laughlin²,

Schultz³

2021

Preprint

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“…Particularly, Section 95 (2) of the Electoral Act (2010 (as amended)), apart from prohibiting abusive and slanderous language, states that insinuations or innuendoes designed or likely to provoke violent reaction or emotions shall not be employed or used during political campaigns. Perhaps this is to prevent the deployment of hate speech or demeaning language by politicians, given the deep-rooted religious and ethnic sentiments that could trigger election crisis in Nigeria (Ezeibe 2021). In particular, Section 95 (3) (b) of the Electoral Act (2010 (as amended)) states that places designated for religious worship shall not be used to promote, propagate or attack political parties or candidates, or their programmes or ideologies.…”

Section: Situating Election Prophecy Within the Existing Electoral/le...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of Nigeria, prophetic declarations and their implications have not in any way attracted the attention of EOGs. Failure to report this phenomenon may not be a surprise because even hate speech, that suddenly became a permanent feature of their reportage, once went unreported -until the 2011 post-election violence which was primarily blamed on hateful utterances of political leaders (Ezeibe 2021). Therefore, this article critiques the failure of EOGs to generically capture the deluge of electoral prophecies that may have adverse effects on the electoral process and the survival of democracy, especially for a highly charged political environment such as Nigeria's.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observing without reporting: critiquing the failure of election observers to report preemptive electoral prophecies in Nigeria

Ikem

Oladejo

2022

Third World Quarterly

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Although Nigerian elections are sufficiently observed by domestic and international observer groups, the frequent pronouncements of religious leaders claiming to have supernatural insights into election outcomes have never captured the attention of these observers. This is despite the fact that election prophecy may have adverse effects on the electoral process and the survival of Nigeria's nascent democracy. This paper critiques the failure of election observers to capture this unfolding trend in their reports bearing in mind that pre-emptive electoral prophecies violate Section 95 (3) (b) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended). The tendency to question the integrity and neutrality of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the judiciary (in cases of post-election litigations), has worsened because of unguarded electoral prophetism. It is therefore recommended that election prophecy should be captured in official election reports so as to -at least -show its enormity. This may trigger a concerted effort among election stakeholders to control it.

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“…Such behaviour manifests in content (text, image, audio-video) aimed at harming individuals or groups based on personal attributes such as race, gender, and ethnicity. At extreme online, hate speech (a type of toxic speech) [50] can lead to incidents of offline violence causing loss of life, and property [25,51]. The real-world impact of toxic online content and its multifaceted nature have galvanised academic and industrial research aimed at early detection and mitigation of such content.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Handling Bias in Toxic Speech Detection: A Survey

Garg¹,

Masud²,

Suresh³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The massive growth of social media usage has witnessed a tsunami of online toxicity in teams of hate speech, abusive posts, cyberbullying, etc. Detecting online toxicity is challenging due to its inherent subjectivity. Factors such as the context of the speech, geography, socio-political climate, and background of the producers and consumers of the posts play a crucial role in determining if the content can be flagged as toxic. Adoption of automated toxicity detection models in production can lead to a sidelining of the various demographic and psychographic groups they aim to help in the first place. It has piqued researchers' interest in examining unintended biases and their mitigation. Due to the nascent and multi-faceted nature of the work, complete literature is chaotic in its terminologies, techniques, and findings. In this paper, we put together a systematic study to discuss the limitations and challenges of existing methods.We start by developing a taxonomy for categorising various unintended biases and a suite of evaluation metrics proposed to quantify such biases. We take a closer look at each proposed method for evaluating and mitigating bias in toxic speech detection. To examine the limitations of existing methods, we also conduct a case study to introduce the concept of bias shift due to knowledge-based bias mitigation methods. The survey concludes with an overview of the critical challenges, research gaps and future directions.While reducing toxicity on online platforms continues to be an active area of research, a systematic study of various biases and their mitigation strategies will help the research community produce robust and fair models.

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Hate Speech and Election Violence in Nigeria

Cited by 28 publications

References 44 publications

Mobile Communication Technology and National Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Mobile Communication Technology and National Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Observing without reporting: critiquing the failure of election observers to report preemptive electoral prophecies in Nigeria

Handling Bias in Toxic Speech Detection: A Survey

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