Kenya’s Information Ministry Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo says mobile telephone service providers block more than 300,000 text messages deemed to spread hatred daily, the Daily Nation reported. Ndemo said this is part of government efforts to curb the spread of content that could incite violence following the 04 March elections. Director of Public Communications Mary Ombara explained that the service providers had installed software that detects messages containing particular words and automatically flags them off for further scrutiny. She said if an SMS contains a word like ‘kill’, it would be detected. The context would then be scrutinised and if found to be offensive, the SMS would be blocked.
However, Ndemo admitted that the government found it difficult to control spread of offensive messages on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The management of the two social networks have agreed to meet government officials with regard to the matter. The committee accused an unnamed FM station of broadcasting malicious statements and wants the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) to take action against the radio station. Police spokesman Charles Owino said 100 election-related offences had been presented to the courts.
From www.telecompaper.com
