‘Ban social media and we'll hit streets’ - Lecturer

Any attempt by the Inspector General of Police to block social media in Ghana on Election Day will be resisted via protests by social media users, Prof Audrey Gadzekpo of the School of Communication Studies at the University of Ghana has warned.

“We have a strong social media-loving public and social movement that will protest, and I will be one of those included in the protests,” she noted in response to Mr John Kudalor’s comment that the Ghana Police Service is considering taking that action on November 7 to ensure peace prevails during the elections.

Apart from sparking street protests, Prof Gadzekpo is of the conviction that an action of the sort will dent the country’s democratic image.

Arguing in support of his proposal, Mr Kudalor said the use of social media by politicians, especially from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), for election-related activities, has created political tensions in the country, thus, his suggestion to go the Ugandan way, where President Yoweri Museveni (recently re-elected for a fifth term) had all social media sites blocked on election day as a “security measure to avert lies”.

“Why are we following moves by countries whose democracy is in question? Why would they be our role model? I hope [the IGP] rethinks it,” Prof Gadzekpo told Class FM’s Ridwan Karim Dini Osman on Thursday May 26.

According to her, the move “is too much of a knee-jerk reaction to social media”.

“What they will also now begin to encourage is the culture of going underground and communicating. It is better for them to allow citizens to communicate the way they want to communicate. Social media is here to stay just as how radio, television or any other platforms of communication exist,”the academic added.

Prof Gadzekpo felt the consideration alone to ban social media was absurd, saying she “cannot imagine a situation in which they will say that they will ban radio, television or they will ban email because people will make irresponsible statements or exchange information in that way”.

She questioned if the IGP will also go ahead to ban social media for anything that is of high concern in the country, arguing that such a move “is almost like censorship”.

Prof Gadzekpo continued: “There is no evidence whatsoever that social media has been used in this instance to cause alarm. So, you cannot, in anticipation, ban social media because it could be used for wrong things, I do not think that is the [best] approach.”