MOGADISHU, Somalia, 17 July 2024 – The Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) calls for Facebook to lift the restrictions imposed on journalist Abdulkadir Isse’s profile and page after a targeted attack by individuals working at the Somali Ministry of Information and the Somali Telecommunication Authority, who are misusing Facebook Community Standards to target critical journalists like Abdulkadir Isse.
On 4 July 2024, Abdulkadir Isse, who works at the Somali state media and covers the military court, published a brief video report on his Facebook page, which has 452K followers, and his profile exposing massive corruption, power abuse, threats to journalists, and other allegations within the Ministry of Information, naming Deputy Minister Abdirahman Yusuf Omar Al Adala as the main perpetrator. On 10 July 2024, he published a full report of 7:03 minutes. The first report garnered 4.3k comments from the public, while the full report received over 4k comments at the time of takedown.
On 06 July, Somalia’s Ministry of Information, under orders from Deputy Minister of Information, Abdirahman Yusuf Al-Adaala, blocked a report filed by senior journalist Abdulkadir Isse Ali on a court hearing involving members of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). The hearing concerned the shooting death of a 14-year-old schoolboy on 12 April 2014, in Mogadishu’s Garasbaaley neighborhood.
According to Abdulkadir Isse Ali, the Deputy Minister Al Adaala, who manages the government radio and television social media accounts, removed the journalist’s access to these accounts – particularly the SNTV Facebook page – and further restricted his access to the Ministry of Information building. Abdulkadir later posted his full report on his personal Facebook page and on the court’s Facebook page, which has 277K followers. Later that evening, SNTV published only video clips from the court hearing on its Facebook page, edited to remove Abdulkadir’s narrative report causing furious reaction in the comments.
“Upon publishing the report, I received email alerts and inbox notifications on my Facebook with a copyright claim, followed by more Community Standards violations. I knew this was my content and replied to Facebook, but it did not work,” Abdulkadir told SJS. “My Facebook page remains unpublished while my profile is restricted, preventing me from even communicating via Facebook.”
As a result of these claims, Abdulkadir’s page was unpublished on July 16, and his user profile has been restricted, making him unable to post. Upon reviewing the messages and emails Abdulkadir received, SJS found that the dubious copyright claims were made under two names. The first claim was made by an unknown Facebook user “Baaba key L,” who claimed ownership of a 7:03-minute audio segment and a 7:02-minute video segment of Abdulkadir Isse’s work. The second claim came from another unknown Facebook user “Kajoog.”
None of the two users have public profiles. SJS believes that both of the users are dubious accounts created by individuals at the Ministry of Information and the Somali National Communication Authority (NCA). We have previously documented collaborations between the NCA, the Ministry of Information, and the national intelligence agency (NISA).
“With over 2.96 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2023, it is estimated that Facebook has tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of new user profiles are created every day. The most saddest part is that we have witnessed that some of these profiles and pages are created by dubios users who either impersonate others or just to troll, target and harass people online including journalists,” says SJS Secretary General Abdalle Mumin.
Facebook, owned by META, remains a vital source of news and information in Somalia and the wider region of the Horn of Africa, where traditional media infrastructure is limited, with many relying on online platforms for updates on local and international news. As documented by SJS, with the growing suppression of Somali journalists in the country, Facebook has become an important platform for freelancers and independent journalists who are shifting to online from mainstream media stations.
SJS calls for Facebook to review the restrictions on journalist Abdulkadir Isse’s page and profile and allow critical journalists like him to safely and independently report on issues of public interest without further restrictions.
“SJS continues to address this matter with Facebook teams and will continue to do so. However, we express our concern that Facebook, which remains a vital platform for information sharing for a growing number of media stations and journalists in Somalia and Somaliland, is misusing Community Standards such as Facebook’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, copyright claims against journalists’ own original content, and implementing poor safety measures. These issues continue to threaten the work of journalists and the right to freedom of expression and press freedom,” added Mr. Mumin.