Day: May 5, 2023

A workshop organized by the Defyhatenow Civic Watch in Douala on May 4 2023 served as an opportunity to tell online content creators to consider the effects of their content first before publication.

Facilitators speaking during the workshop said many media professionals have found themselves propagating hate speech, at times without knowing because they didn’t take time to fact-check or reflect on the effects.

Kinang Derick Fai, Conflict Research and Administrative Coordinator for Defyhatenow, said the session in Douala was meant to bring media professionals together so that they could talk about responsible use of the social media. “We wanted to look at ourselves eyeball to eyeball and critically examine some of our publications,” he said.

“We wanted to see among ourselves if there was a better way we could produce some of this content in a responsible way without violating the community standards of the different platforms we use,” the coordinator added.

He noted that the Defyhatenow project is organized in collaboration with Meta, which is why they decided to do a study of online platforms like Facebook and Instagram, as well as Twitter and Tik Tok among others. “We wanted to see how these platforms are being used by these different content creators and influencers,” the facilitator indicated.

Participants were encouraged to avoid making publications because they want to please followers or simply because they want to put food on their table. “You must not do it the wrong way,” the media experts were told.

The content creators were urged to be peace builders and persons who use the digital space to build a better society.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

For some time now, users of the MTN mobile telephone network have been expressing dissatisfaction and disappointment as they share their personal experiences as far as money transfers are concerned.

Some of these users say money has “disappeared” many times from their accounts and at others, the amounts sent were not the amounts received and the mobile network’s customer service has been useless as far as solving the problem is concerned.

“I stood there and watched 225,000frs being sent to my phone then later on checking my balance, I saw only 222,000 frs. I was confused. The entire money was sent because I recieved the message. How then and why 3,000frs was deducted by MTN, I cannot understand. I called customer service they picked up and said it must be a problem from the optic fiber they will fix. Till date nothing. It’s been a week now,” Aurel Tsafack, a disappointed MTN user explains.

Users say call credit and data activation is worst. Helen Ngwafor a business woman in Buea says she activates data atleast 3 times a day even after having activated for a month:

“I have the 10,000frs 1GB each day subscription but before 2pm, MTN tells me I exhausted my data for the day so I end up activating another data plan. In less than an hour, a message pops up saying I have consumed 50% of my data already when I’m not even online. The expense is too much. To calculate how much I use a day for data not to talk of a month is a total fraud.”

Aside the grievances shared above, some users express the insecurity around the mobile banking service where consumers have lost hundreds of thousands to scammers who have some how managed to have access to their accounts.

“I was deceived by a short message from MTN to activate a free data bundle offered to me. Once I approved, I realised the next morning that I had been robbed,” Mercy Linjap another user explains.

From horrible network to countless interrupted calls, users say it is invasion of privacy and are irritated.

Users say they expect to recieve their money back as MTN remains the most used network service in Cameroon.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

The Minister of Post and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng says Cameroon has one of the most affordable telephone fares in Africa. The Minister was guest on the 8:30pm news on state media on Thursday May 4th where she reacted to the boycott of these mobile telephone operators recently launched by some celebrities in Cameroon due to poor services.

Minister Libom Li Likeng in her remarks on state media declared “I would like to say again here that Cameroon remains the country where telephone tarifs are really affordable. I don’t say they can’t be reduced again. Of course the prices can be reduced but it’s better to first of all look at where we came from.”

She traced the evolution of prices taking the example from the year 2020.

“In 2020, the average price of a gigabyte was above a thousand francs, we’ve had a fall of close to 93%. Today we can have 2 gigabytes at FCFA 1,000. As to what concerns calls, we are from an era where a minute cost FCFA 1,200, today it costs FCFA 5 because of competition,” added the Minister.

She also noted that the telecommunications sector is a sector that changes with time and costs are not decreed.

“Costs in the telecommunications sector are determined by investments made by the operators, and network coverage among others. There are many elements that are taken into account. We are working with the companies to reduce prices. We can’t just tell them to reduce prices like that, we must dialogue with them for that to happen.”

The Minister concluded her proposals by saying government has a responsibility of equipping these telephone companies with the necessary tools so that they can cover their expenses.

Source: Cameroon News Agency