Ethiopia starts building local rival to Facebook

Government wants its own social media platform to replace Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Zoom

Ethiopia has begun developing its own social media platform to rival Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, though it does not plan to block the global services, the state communications security agency has said.

For the past year Ethiopia has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the Tigray region in the country's north.