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Kenyan Social Media Influencers and Content Creators Trained to Address Harmful Content Online

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Kenyan Social Media Influencers and Content Creators Trained to Address Harmful Content Online

Digital technologies transformed the ways in which information is created, conveyed and consumed. Today, people around the world are more enabled than ever before to access, create, and disseminate information. Given the importance of information to decision-making, problem-solving and buildling knowledge, there is a pressing need for reliable and accurate information. However, advancements in digital technologies including the proliferation of AI technologies have also led to proliferation of harmful content across digital platforms. This phenomenon is increasingly blurring the distinction of truth/facts from falsehoods/fiction, threatening societal cohesion, security and wellbeing. As a result, today’s information space is flooded with a wide spectrum of information—ranging from credible news to disinformation and hate speech—which are at times effectively indistinguishable.  To promote the resilience of communities against this wave of harmful online content, there is a need to upskill those who create, convey and consume information on Digital, Media and Information Literacy.

Social media influencers and content creators have become prominent actors in the media and information space – breaking news on events, informing publics and shaping agendas and opinions using their platforms. They have extensive reach and influence and possess significant credibility among their followers. As such, they are key actors in providing reliable information to audiences.

Cognisant of this new reality, the Africa Centre for People, Institutions and Society (ACEPIS), supported by UNESCO, will organise a three (3) day workshop in March 2024, which aims to bolster resilience of social media influencers and content creators against harmful online content in Kenya. This workshop is part of activities of the UNESCO EU-funded Social Media for Peace (SM4P) Project and the National Coalition on Freedom of Expression and Content Moderation (FeCoMo) in Kenya.

The objectives of the workshop are to:

  • Strengthen knowledge and understanding of information disorder among social media influencers and content creators and examine strategies for tackling hate speech misinformation and disinformation;
  • Increase awareness on the existing legal and institutional framework on harmful content in Kenya;
  • Increase awareness on fundamental human and digital rights
  • Empower social media influencers and content creators to take lead in initiating efforts to combat harmful content online and promote safe and inclusive online spaces; and
  • Develop an action plan with detailed strategies and commitments on how social media influencers and content creators will contribute to tackling online hate and disinformation in Kenya.

Suitable training content has been developed and will be delivered by expert trainers from ACEPIS in collaboration with UNESCO and partners in FeCoMo, who bring expert knowledge on MIL and a wealth of experience on the digital media and information landscape in Kenya. Content has been developed and tailored based on information from a capacity needs assessment conducted prior to the training. Trainers shall utilise various methodologies like case studies, interactive training, knowledge-sharing sessions, and roundtable discussions. Participants will collectively work on an action plan, outlining their role, contributions and commitment to tackling online hate and disinformation over the next one year.

Social Media 4 Peace (SM4P)

The UNESCO EU-funded “Social Media 4 Peace” project seeks to strengthen the resilience of societies to potentially harmful content spread online, in particular hate speech inciting violence while protecting freedom of expression and enhancing the promotion of peace through digital technologies, notably social media. The project is also being implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, and Colombia.

Kenyan Coalition publishes recommendations on the proposed UN Code of Conduct on Information Integrity on Digital Platforms

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Expert consultation on the UN Code of Conduct on Information Integrity on Digital Platforms, held 5 December 2023 at UNON Gigiri. © UNESCO

The National Coalition on Freedom of Expression and Content Moderation in Kenya (FECoMo), established under UNESCO’s Social Media 4 Peace project, has published its recommendations on the proposed UN Code of Conduct for Information Integrity on Digital Platforms. The recommendations contribute critical expert insights and often-overlooked Kenyan and African perspectives to the process of global norms-setting in multilateral spaces.

The proposed UN Code of Conduct on Information Integrity on Digital Platforms will help guide Member States, digital platforms and other stakeholders in their efforts to ensure a safer and more inclusive digital space for all, while vigorously defending the right to freedom of expression and access to information. It will be formally discussed and proposed as a framework for a coordinated global response to the ongoing information crisis on digital platforms at the forthcoming United Nations Summit of the Future 2024, a high-level intergovernmental meeting that will agree on multilateral solutions for a better tomorrow and strengthen global governance for present and future generations.

The published recommendations follow from an Expert Consultation organised by the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) and UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa, held on 5 December 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya. The consultation was one of many around that world convened in response to UN Secretary General António Guterres’ call for a broad engagement and strong contributions from all stakeholders on the proposed Code of Conduct ahead of the Summit, which will take place from 22-23 September 2024 in New York.

“Our policy brief on information integrity on digital platforms puts forward a framework for a [concerted] international response. Its proposals are aimed at creating guardrails to help governments come together around guidelines that promote facts, while exposing conspiracies and lies, and safeguarding freedom of expression and information; And to help tech companies navigate difficult ethical and legal issues and build business models based on a healthy information ecosystem.”

— António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations, 12 June 2023, at the Secretary-General’s Press Briefing on Policy Brief on Information Integrity on Digital Platforms

In Kenya, the consultation convened 26 experts from multidisciplinary fields, including regulation, public policy, law, civil society, media, technology and academia among others. Majority of the experts who engaged in the consultation were members of FECoMo, established under UNESCO’s EU-funded Social Media 4 Peace project—a multi-year project aimed at building society’s resilience to potentially harmful content online. The Coalition is composed of multidisciplinary stakeholders committed to addressing potential harmful content online, particularly mis/disinformation and hate speech in Kenya.

Social media platforms are deeply embedded in our social fabric and mediate the ways that people around the world understand and interact with one another. They have and will increasingly play a significant role in shaping our knowledge societies and shared realities. Around the world, more than five billion social media users—over 60% of the global population—use social media platforms to access information, connect with loved ones, and represent themselves in the social, economic, and political processes that shape our present and future.

However, the ubiquity of digital platforms—in particularly social media platforms—has more recently surfaced deep and troubling concerns about its impact on peace and cohesion. Hate and lies spread with more velocity, volume and virality than ever before, with serious harms on local, regional and global peace. Today, conflict and violence, as well as the degradation of human rights and democracy, draw direct causal links to the circuits of hate speech, misinformation and disinformation that proliferate in the online spaces. Government regulatory frameworks are scarcely ready to respond to these new emerging challenges. Platforms and platform designers need to rethink and reflect on existing algorithmic designs and business models, which create affordances for malicious actors to profit off harmful content online.

Against this backdrop, the published document distils the key recommendations to the proposed UN Code of Conduct, presented by the Coalition and other experts during the consultations in Kenya. It outlines FECoMo’s position on protecting information integrity, promoting digital platforms’ governance, and user empowerment—particularly within a Kenyan and African context. These interventions are consistent with FECoMo’s mission to provide thought leadership, expertise, and strengthen cross-sectoral partnerships in advancing information integrity on digital platforms in Kenya.

“It is hoped that the recommendations provide opportunities for reflection, consideration, and fruitful dialogue with policy makers, citizens, and the global community to collaboratively realize a safe, inclusive and empowering online environment in Kenya and the world.”

— Victor Kapiyo, Advocate, Researcher, and Tech Law Specialist, KICTANET

Read the Recommendations:

Recommendations on the UN Code of Conduct on Information Integrity on Digital Platforms

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Recommendations on the UN Code of Conduct on Information Integrity on Digital Platforms

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[pdf-embedder url=”https://fecomo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Recommendations-by-the-National-Coalition-on-Freedom-of-Expression-and-Content-Moderation-in-Kenya-on-the-proposed-voluntary-UN-Code-of-Conduct-for-Information-Integrity-3.pdf” title=”Recommendations by the National Coalition on Freedom of Expression and Content Moderation in Kenya on the proposed voluntary UN Code of Conduct for Information Integrity (3)”]

World Radio Day 2024: How Kenya’s Community Radios are Strengthening Democracy

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This article was originally published by the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa.

Bonface Opany, Station Manager of Radio DomusBonface Opany, Station Manager of Radio Domus. © Sharmaine Koh/ UNESCO

When Bonface Opany graduated from college in 2015, he heard about a volunteer call from a new community radio station in his neighbourhood.

“I became part of the first cohort that helped the station to go on air on its very first day,” he recalls. “It turned out that our transmitter was faulty, and the hosts had been talking to themselves for two hours before we realised we were off-air!”

Nearly a decade later, Bonface now serves as the Station Manager of Radio Domus FM, the same community radio where he had started. Covering an area of 25 square kilometers, the community radio station has come a long way from its early beginnings and now serves 350,000 daily listeners in parts of Kajiado North, Kajiado West and Langata sub-countries in Kenya.

Radio Domus

 

Kajiado North is home to a large itinerant labour force who commute daily to Nairobi for work, thus earning the region its moniker as the “bedroom of Nairobi”. Once largely inhabited by the Masai tribe, it is today a highly cosmopolitan area, drawing diverse peoples who moved and settled in the outskirts of the capital city amidst its rapid growth over the past few decades.

This melting pot comes with challenges. Matters of land ownership between old inhabitants and new settlers, discontent over the proportion of ethnic representation in the county government, low levels of income and education, as well as politically-driven online hate speech among youth, are some examples of social and political tensions faced by the community.

Against this backdrop, Radio Domus serves as a key communicator and mediator in the community. Over the last decade, Bonface and his team have practiced an “Open Door Policy” to build trust between the radio and the community. In addition to free SMS lines which the public can use to give feedback on the radio’s regular programming, the radio also hosts year-end forums for listeners to raise their concerns and provide suggestions for new programmes at the Domus studio in Karen Village, a cosy arts and culture space just outside Nairobi.

Today, community members feel free to express and exchange perspectives in the thriving public space which the radio has helped to create.

The Voice of the Community: Radio’s Role in Ground-up Democracy

“We live among the communities we serve,” explains Bonface, when we ask him how Radio Domus serves an audience as diverse as Kajiado. “That gives us an advantage of first-hand feedback and information, which helps us to co-create programmes that take into account as many different views as possible.”

One example is Radio Domus’ multi-religious programming. In addition to the regular morning Gospel slots for the Christian community, Muslim leaders and community members are also given a platform. This ensures that different groups feel included and heard. Sometimes, Christian and Muslim community leaders are also brought on-air together to foster inter-religious dialogue.

Recently, the radio has also piloted “Social Monitoring and Accountability Teams”, small roving listener groups formed by community members who are responsible for gathering and disseminating information to the grassroots. The lean eight-person Domus team also relies on the networks and influence of key individuals among their community, such as women, youth and religious leaders, to engage and represent the views of their peers.

A group of members from a Social Monitoring and Accountability Team pose for a photo.A Social Monitoring and Accountability Team after a meeting. © Radio Domus

Bonface shares that the community radio has also helped to improve public participation and government accountability. As part of its regular programming, it runs a Wednesday morning show on governance to educate the community on salient policies and political events. During elections, community radios like Radio Domus serve as an important democratic platform for aspirants to debate in a respectful and transparent manner.

“It is also two-way communication between the speakers and the listeners,” Bonface emphasises. “We open the phone lines during such debates so that community members can participate and raise questions too.”

During one such debate, community members called in to express dissatisfaction about opportunities for public participation. In particular, constituents felt that county leaders were not involving them enough in key decisions.

“Since the last election, we’ve actually seen evidence that our local leaders responded to public opinion raised in these civic spaces. The county government is reaching out to us more to advertise public participation events.”

These positive trends have also encouraged more people to participate in civic spaces and processes of governance.

“It is really heartening,” adds Bonface, “It didn’t use to be like this before.”

#SocialMedia4Peace: Protecting Democracy and Free Speech Online

The information age has brought a myriad for challenges for the safeguarding and promotion of democracy and free speech, especially in online spaces. With misinformation and disinformation on the rise, digital platforms are becoming hotbeds of hate and harm. Marginalized groups like women and girls, youth in rural and urban informal settlements, and indigenous communities are especially vulnerable to these negative trends.

“Since the onset of COVID-19, we’ve really seen how hate speech and disinformation can affect the community,” recalls Bonface. Beyond the pandemic, however, such fissures have always existed. “When emotive politics and scarce resources enter the fore, we almost always see people start to propagate hate speech online.”

Young people are particular susceptible to divisive politics. Opportunistic politicians sometimes take advantage of online citizens—many of whom are youth—to gain an edge over opponents, inciting cyberbullying, trolling and other forms of harmful content. Youth engagement has thus been an important aspect of Radio Domus’ work, something we learn as we jump into the studio with radio host Christine Mbeene—a.k.a. Tina One GB—who is running her evening show. Christine’s Carribean Flavor is a news interactive talk show that appeals to young people with its characteristic ‘reggae vibes’.

A female radio host, also known as Tina One GB, poses for a photo in the studioChristine Mbeene, host of the “Carribean Flavor” Talk Show. © Sharmaine Koh/ UNESCO

As part of joint efforts by Kenya’s community radios under the Association for Community Media Operators in Kenya (ACKMO), Bonface served as a project coordinator for the recently concluded #AmaniOnline campaign. #AmaniOnline was a month-long radio campaign under the EU-funded UNESCO Social Media 4 Peace programme, which seeks to protect freedom of expression while strengthening the resilience of civil society to the spread of harmful content online.

Alongside fellow community radio stations like Mtaani Radio and Ruben FM, Radio Domus practiced what it does best as part of the #AmaniOnline campaign—creating common ground. It moderated discussions between Commissioners from the National Commission for Integration and Cohesion (NCIC) and the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) on issues relating to online harmful content and the need for community cohesion.

The interviews were broadcast in Swahili and Masai languages to appeal to Domus’s regular listeners in their local tongue.

Radio: A Century of Informing, Entertaining and Educating

On the occasion of World Radio Day 2024, which commemorates the 100th anniversary of radio, we pay tribute to this timeless medium that continues to stay closest to human hearts and minds. Whether in times of normalcy or crisis, radio has remained a key vehicle for freedom of opinion and access to information. Even amidst a fast-digitalizing information ecosystem, it continues to preserve and grow its role as a bridge between online and on-ground communities and conversations.

The triumph of trust and accessibility embodied by Radio Domus and other community radios in Kenya points to the need to continue safeguarding and promoting radio as a foundation of inclusive knowledge societies. Community radios in particular live and breathe among the communities they serve, help minority language speakers to receive information and participate in democratic processes, and ensure that the means of civic participation remains available to all individuals regardless of identity, financial means or personal circumstances.

“Everybody should have the opportunity to be heard.” — Bonface Opany, Station Manager, Radio Domus

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