ABSTRACT
Cameroon, once described as an “island” of peace in a subregion plagued by chaos and civil strife, has been in the throes of an armed conflict in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Over 3000 people have been killed, nearly 1 million internally displaced, and about 60,000 have fled into neighbouring Nigeria. What began as a protest march by teachers and lawyers calling for reforms in education and the judicial systems in the English-speaking regions quickly spiralled into riots as government security forces fired live ammunition on unarmed civilians. Top government officials and activists have turned to social media to produce competing/counter-narratives on the crisis. Conceptualised as sites of oppositional struggles, this chapter argues that social media platforms are the veritable battlegrounds of the crisis. This argument is strongly supported by the “war” launched against social media by the Cameroonian government, which included a six-month Internet blackout, social media censorship imposed on citizens in the English-speaking regions, a law passed against hate speech (particularly targeting social media activism), and a dramatic increase in social mediated communication by members of government on government's handling of the crisis. In addition to exploring these issues in the crisis, the chapter draws from the social mediated crisis communication model to examine the concepts of legitimacy, significant choice, and censorship, emphasising significant choice and legitimacy as ultimate outcomes of an effective social mediated crisis communication. The chapter concludes with implications for theory and practice of social mediated crisis communication in contexts beset by governmental censorship.
