Abstract
Disinformation and hate speech is extremely pervasive in Ethiopia that negatively affected the political, economic, social, ethnic and religious landscape of the country. Several deadly conflicts occurred between religious and ethnic groups in the last five years alone (2018-2023) that prompted the deaths and displacements of thousands, if not millions, of people and destruction of property. Based on a qualitative analysis of primary and secondary data, the present research found that, the practical implementation of the law is problematic, sometimes (mis)used to suppress government critics and freedom of expression enshrined in the constitution. Moreover, the magnitude of the problem is ever increasing where the government is unable to control via the law and with an erratic measure of shutting down of internet and social media accesses.
