The idea of this
hashtag was discussed as matter-of-factly
by like-minded friends on Twitter, just a few days after the
Ethiopian government suddenly 'freed' some members of Zone 9 bloggers
and journalists at the beginning of July. One of them was suggesting
to exploit this opportunity to urge President Obama to press its
Ethiopian counterparts to release the prisoners of conscience and to
respect the rule of law. The other suggested this seemingly harsh
hashtag.
BTW shouldn't we start some hashtag to make voices heard while he's visiting, pls shoot one!
— Faisal (@FtihLeEt) July 12, 2015
This same guy posted on twitter
conversation in Amharic (Ethiopian official language) “The
hustle is getting harder, I wonder when exactly this guy [President
Obama] is coming.”
On July 20th
2015, an Ethiopian Muslim
activist Facebooker revealed
the plan inviting Ethiopians at home and abroad to use
#EthiopiansMessageToObama hashtag in the social media from July 21st
– July 24th
2015 between 9-10 GMT Ethiopian local time. In this the fifth of its
kind social-media campaign, thousands of tweets were flooded the internet from all corners of the world.
According to Vocactiv,
an online media, twitter users leveraged President Obama's final
appearance on Daily Show last Tuesday (July 21, 2015) to highlight
the injustices. Hundreds of tweets were posted with a hashtag
'#EthiopiansMessageToObama' before, during and after the broadcast to
draw attention to Ethiopia’s crackdown on dissent.
But, who are these twittering people
trending the hashtag #EthiopiansMessageToObama on the social media?
Many of them are Ethiopians who accuse their government
