We love when mobile technology is used for good and today we bring you the story of such an example.
In Kenya, government launched a toll-free SMS service to monitor hate speech during campaigns ahead of the next months’ constitutional referendum. The service launch comes after five people have been killed in twin blasts at a rally against the draft law in Nairobi in June.
Mary Onyango, the deputy head of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (which is behind the SMS service), said: “We know that there are still those who are making remarks that are not conducive to integration and cohesion and we are dealing with such persons.”
Thus far, three politicians were charged in court for hate speech.
Those unfamiliar should know that Kenya is recovering from ethnically-driven violence, following the disputed December 2007 presidential elections which left some 1,500 people dead. A new constitution is part of wide-ranging reforms agreed on in a 2008 peace accord that brought an end to the violence.
[Via: MontrealGazette]