By inventing social media (Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter), the idea was to facilitate communication to humanity. Connect people separated by thousands of kilometers, share images and information in the blink of an eye, etc. The benefits of social media are well established. But in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), social networks are used to something else. As you will discover in this post.
I am ashamed of the way social media are used in the DRepublic of C. When you access Facebook pages or groups, WhatsApp or even Twitter accounts managed by Congolese, it is clear that there is very little debate of ideas, less science and shared democratic views, but rather more insults, messages of tribal hate,stigma and even calls for violence and genocide against some tribes of the country. I think social media have not been created to serve such causes.
Even street and home quarrels are carried on social media. When a discussion begins, it ends with insults,threats and intimidation. On the radio or in the National Assembly, Congolese politicians quarrel like children. They no longer have the sense of honor either for themselves or for the country. Recently, Marie-Ange Mushobekwa, Minister of Human Rights of the DRC and the opponent Olivier Kamitatu insulted on Twitter, covering the country with shame. Sometimes I wonder if we have statesmen or political offenders in the Congo.
Social media have become a real jungle and lawless area in the DRC. Too much pornography and sexual harassment. I think he’s right about the man who said, “Social media have given voice to legions of idiots who used to talk only at the bar and did no harm to the community. They were silenced right away. Today, they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize!” And this is unfortunately the case on social networks in the Democratic Republic of Congo. You find a bunch of jacks, brutes, uncultivated and blues giving lessons on Facebook, spreading their baseness, their insanities and obscenities … All this in the name of freedom of expression.
At the rate things are going, I think the government has an interest in passing laws that crack down on cybercrime. We must track down and block the accounts of all the authors of insults and hate content on socialnetworks. In short, we must moralize a little the use of social media in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
