Social Media and Conflict in DRC.

Hate speech has a legacy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In the 1990s, the eastern part of the country was exposed to hate speech on the radio from neighboring Rwanda. The genocide there soon pushed hundreds of thousands of displaced Rwandans into DRC, drawing definitive lines between ethnic, political, and social groups and setting off a decades-long debate around what it means to be Congolese. The long-delayed presidential election that ultimately took place on December 30 last year also led to a nationwide SMS and internet shutdown spearheaded by the federal government in Kinshasa.