As Kenyans go the polls on Tuesday 9th August for the country’s 2022 General Elections, Twitter serves as a centralised hub for real-time political conversation and commentary, electoral resources, journalistic reports live from the campaign trail as well as a tool for people to hear directly from political representatives themselves.
Some highlights:
- Twitter is announcing through its Kenya Elections blog post, the introduction of a custom Emoji, for everyone that wants to discuss the election on Twitter. This forms part of efforts to foster and facilitate free, open and healthy electoral conversations during the elections.
- The special elections emoji can be activated by the hashtags #KenyaDecides, #KenyaDecides2022, #electionske #electionske2022, and features a ballot box emblazoned with the Kenyan flag.
- With the hashtags, it will be even easier to join the conversation on Twitter about the elections. People on Twitter will be able to find Tweets faster and it will be much easier for everyone to respond.
- The blog also shares steps taken towards amplifying verified election information, and insights into Twitter’s work with trusted local partners ahead of the elections.
Emmanuel Lubanzadio (@elubanzadio53), Head of Public Policy, Sub-Saharan Africa, Twitter in a blog post detailed work the social media company has undertaken ahead of the Kenyan election for the Presidential elections and to elect members of the National Assembly, and the Senate:
Elections on Twitter
During any election, Twitter serves as a centralised hub for real-time political conversation and commentary, electoral resources, journalistic reports live from the campaign trail as well as a tool for people to hear directly from political representatives themselves.
Our work to make Twitter an engaging and healthy platform for political discourse is long standing; in 2019 we banned political ads as we believe political messaging should be earned, not bought; we’ve expanded our policies around election misinformation and continue to add context and notices to Tweets with manipulated media, to ensure people have the context they need.
2022 Kenyan Elections
Today, we wanted to share the steps we’ve taken and the trusted local partnerships we have, ahead of the 2022 Kenyan elections, ensuring the debate on Twitter is healthy, open and safe.
Our work also ensures that Twitter continues to serve as the go-to place for people to see what’s happening, participate in the conversation, track campaign trails and consume verified information, so voters can make informed choices about what’s most important to them in this election.
Partnerships
As we work to improve the health of the public conversation – particularly during civic events like elections – we are committed to reaching beyond Twitter to intergrate diverse perspectives that make our service better for everyone. As part of that, we have partnered with a number of organisations to further amplify credible information during the Kenyan election.
Elevate Credible Information: One such partner is Africa Check; established in 2012 as the continent’s first independent, nonpartisan fact-checking organisation that debunks dangerous statements, and empowers people to engage with information critically, while also building a culture of fact-checking across Africa.
In the build-up to the Kenyan elections, Africa Check – which is part of the Fumbua collective, continues to combat false narratives, amplify accurate information and lead the activation of critical media literacy work across the region.
“We are pleased to collaborate with Twitter as part of our election work in Kenya. The collaboration will allow us to address dis- and misinformation by fact-checking claims and identifying potential misinformation. We will also highlight accurate, verified information ahead of the election on the platform so that voters can make informed decisions. Media literacy programmes are a proactive strategy to fight misinformation and allow us to use our fact-checking work to inoculate people against false information proactively and empower them to critically understand, analyse, and evaluate information instead of simply consuming and sharing it. We believe this enables them to make evidence-based decisions vital ahead of elections. Notably, the partnership with Twitter will deepen the impact of our media literacy project as it will allow us to reach a broader audience.” – Africa Check
This work is key to the protection of the election conversation and we look forward to continued partnerships and collaboration with Africa Check and all our other partner organisations, up to and after the Kenyan elections.
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