But it remains to be seen whether this combination of measures will insulate Kenya from the ever present ghost of hate speech. Germany in particular takes a hard line against hate speech online. Police in Germany recently launched a number of raids amid a spike in hate speech against immigrants and refugees. In the run up to the March 2013 elections, it was applied to fight hate speech via SMS and on the internet. With a history of violence fuelled by hate speech, authorities can cite the frequent acts of dangerous language and an impending general election as legitimate justification.

Source: The Star February 15, 2017 08:31 UTC