Crazy, Stupid, Lying, Traitors: Eritrean Politics and Extreme Speech Online

ABSTRACT:This essay explores the dynamics of extreme speech online in the context of Eritrea's fraught politics. I find the public sphere that Eritreans in diaspora established on a website as constantly open to collapse and subversion, and thus requiring on-going negotiation among participants. The analysis draws on a close reading of a set of online exchanges in response to a narrative posted on a leading Eritrean news and discussion website. The operation of an open public sphere online is especially significant for Eritreans since there is no right to freedom of expression and no independent media inside the country. In heated exchanges online, people’s identities as Eritreans and their loyalties are questioned in spectacular attempts to silence, intimidate, and exclude certain people or ideas. What I also uncover are the strategies used by some posters and the moderator to assert the value of civil discourse and to keep the public forum open and inclusive. The ways that Eritreans engage in and respond to extreme speech in an online forum are interesting for what they reveal about Eritrean politics, but furthermore shed light on the global issue of extreme speech, digital media, and public spheres.