Influence of Social Media in Upholding Human Rights: A case study of facebook use in Eastlands Nairobi

Abstract

The ease of access, use, and the vast range of technical affordances of social media has seen a rise in their application in surveillance, intelligence gathering, communication, mobilizing and other policing activities. Their participatory and network characteristics have made it easy for community policing by enhancing the connection within and between the police and citizens. This notwithstanding, not much is known about the unique challenges and successes associated with the implementation of individual social networking platforms within police departments on community policing. Accordingly, this study analyzed how the use of Facebook as a social media crime-fighting tool promotes and violates human rights principles in Eastland’s, Nairobi‒Kenya. The objectives of the study were to; determine the role that the selected Facebook pages and groups play to gang members in Eastland, Nairobi Kenya, investigate the extent to which these Facebook pages and groups facilitate or undermine the rights to due judicial processes of suspected gang members, investigate to what extent the use of Facebook selected pages and groups facilitates or complicates Eastland’s residents' right to life, examine the deployment of the selected Facebook pages and groups as a tool of surveillance in Eastland, Nairobi Kenya and establish how the use of Facebook selected pages and groups is facilitating or complicating Eastland’s residents' right to security. Uses and gratification theory was used to explain how people of Eastland's of Nairobi and the ‘police’ use the selected Facebook pages and groups and how the use influences them. Contemporary surveillance theory was used to explain how Facebook is used as a surveillance tool by people believed to be police officers in the Eastlands of Nairobi to surveil gangs and residents in the Facebook platform and the community. The study adopted a qualitative research approach and a multi-method design that included; descriptive, qualitative survey, and qualitative content analysis. Purposive sampling and snowballing were used to obtain a sample size of 34 respondents comprising of residents of three of Eastland’s neighbourhoods (Kayole, Mathare, and Dandora) in Nairobi who uses Facebook and is part of Facebook groups organized around ‘community policing’, former/reformed criminal gang members in Eastland’s of Nairobi, human rights organizations that report and document extrajudicial killings in the selected slums and, crime reporters. The study established that Facebook is used as a tool to inflict punishment on suspected criminals where policing has failed to obtain sufficient evidence to convict a suspect by arousing anger to obtain citizen support for condemnation through posting of graphical displays, photos of suspects, victims’ stories, mass publication, and verbal threats. Through these postings, the right to life was influenced due to judicial process or privacy. It was further established that people believed to be police officers use information from Facebook members who belong to Hessy Facebook groups and pages for surveillance. They obtain the information through befriending suspects and accessing members’ friends/networks. The study concludes that the use of Facebook in Eastland of Nairobi in community policing has an impact on the human right of people living in Eastland. It is thus recommended that Facebook community policing should be encouraged to help members post in the group whenever they are in danger so that police can intervene but with a lot of caution not to undermine human rights.