At the start of the week, the hashtag #RejectFinanceBill was trending top globally. This is the hashtag that Kenyans have coalesced around to push their reservations on the finance bill 2024.
The annual bill that has just undergone its second reading in the National Assembly has sixty-five (65) clauses and seeks to amend sections in 10 different Kenyan laws. Many Kenyans find the proposals punitive, overreaching and even colonial.
Hashtag Suppression
Social media platforms have offered an avenue to express themselves and digitally protest. However, there has been keyword filtering on Instagram, TikTok and X since Tuesday this week. Keyword filtering is a feature that allows platforms to block or filter content based on keywords.
The #RejectFinanceBill2024 hashtag is being suppressed on X despite the fact that the owner, Elon Musk champions the platform as the home of free speech.
Only recently at the Cannes Festival, Musk said, “𝕏 is the most effective platform to reach the most influential leaders of the world. I believe in sort of freedom of choice. “
Usually, social media auto-complete offers users an extra level of direction by providing a collection of currently trending hashtags. However, Kenyans are unable to find the hashtags #RejectFinanceBill, #RejectFinanceBill2024 and #OccupyParliament. They are forced to type all the characters. On Elon’s X, the problem is exacerbated with the proliferation of spammy misspelled hashtags that closely align with the legitimate hashtags.
These alternate connotations suggest that nefarious actors are not just suppressing the main keywords but attempting to drive traffic away. On TikTok, the best you can find on autosuggest is #RejectFinanceBill2023. This is today irrelevant to the online discourse.
Cyber Hacktivist Join Digital Protests
As Kenyans around the country take to the streets to express their frustrations with a government that doesn’t seem to care, their digital activism is being countered. However, this has not deterred people and there have been many citizen led coordinated efforts to make their voices heard.
While no official communication has come from any relevant bodies, Kenyans have been faced by silent digital suppression before. Only last year, messaging app Telegram was geo blocked for close to a month. No official reason has even been given.
In recent developments, renowned hacktivist collective YourAnonCentral, have promised to join Kenyans in their call to #REJECTFINANCEBILL. They issued a warning to parliament on X, particularly speaking on their now publicly accessible phone numbers.
Read: Anonymous Hacks and Leaks 1 Terabyte of Data from Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In the past, the group has hacked PayPal, Mastercard and supported the Arab Spring by attacking government websites in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.
