Category Archives: FIFAfrica

#FIFAfrica20 |

Today, September 29, 2020, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has released a new report, State of Internet Freedom in Africa 2020. The report focuses on the impact of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) measures adopted by governments to contain its spread on digital rights and freedoms including freedom of expression and information, assembly and association, and the right to privacy.  

The report, which investigated the measures implemented by governments in Africa in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic shows that the highhandedness with which the governments and their agencies enforced the different Covid-19 preventive measures, including the suspension of rights through emergency declarations and the gagging of critical voices calling for transparency and accountability in handling the pandemic has greatly affected digital rights on the continent.

According to the report, prior to and during the pandemic period, several countries enacted retrogressive laws and implemented oppressive measures that served to strengthen the state’s repressive hand at the expense of citizens’ rights.

Onslaught on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information

Efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation related to Covid-19 had a direct effect on the enjoyment of the rights to freedom of expression and information. Whereas there were some bright spots, these were overshadowed by the negative.

Several governments enacted vague and overly broad laws and implemented repressive practices that curtailed freedom of expression and restricted access to information through censorship, filtering of content, closure of media houses, threats, arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, prosecution, intimidation and harassment of journalists, online activists and bloggers.

Punitive sanctions and the criminalisation of the work of media houses and journalists in countries such as Tanzania, Chad, Uganda, Nigeria, Niger, and Ethiopia, in effect gagged the media, and restricted the flow, quality and quantity of information available to journalists and the general public.

Invasion of Privacy and Personal Data Breaches

The fight against COVID-19 has been characterised by an assortment of measures that led to the violation of privacy in numerous countries. The new Covid-19 legislation as well as pre-existing laws that were cited in implementing pandemic-related emergency measures such as in Chad, Mauritius, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Zambia authorised the searching of homes and individuals, and required the reporting of individuals suspected to be carrying the virus. 

Further, the laws required the collection of personal information of individuals, contact tracing and surveillance activity in countries like Burundi, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tunisia, as well as mandatory testing in Zimbabwe. These measures mostly had the effect of undermining individuals’ data rights.

The infringement on individual privacy was aggravated by the absence of strong or recommended  data protection safeguards in most of the affected countries. while some of the countries had laws on privacy and data protection, they did not offer strong protection but rather facilitated privacy invasion. 

Accelerating Digital Exclusion

The report reveals that while Covid-19 has illuminated the centrality of technology in the lives of individuals and communities, it has also brought to the fore the glaring digital divide in the region, and indeed deepened the digital exclusion. Several individuals including persons with disabilities have been locked out of active participation in the digital society, with the exclusion being manifested in accessing education, remote work, and participating in democratic processes, among others. In some countries, internet costs remained very high while in others like Uganda, tax on social media continued to subsist. The high costs and taxes went to the root of affordability ICTs. 

Undermining Citizen Participation

The report also demonstrates that the fight against Covid-19 has eroded the ability by citizens to participate in civic matters and the conduct of public affairs. Stringent measures including clamp down on media platforms, intimidation, arrests, detention and prosecution. These high-handed measures including in Algeria, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe  have cowed citizens, activists, and the media for fear of attracting reprisals. These measures have, in turn, forced human rights defenders, journalists, activists, the political opposition, and ordinary citizens to self-censor, disengage from participating in public affairs, and refrain from exercising their rights to participate.

Recommendations

The report calls upon governments, their agencies and authorities to drop all regressive measures that curtail digital rights and freedoms and instead adopt and undertake measures that promote the protection and enjoyment of digital rights and freedoms in the region.

Civil society organisations, telecommunication companies, and other stakeholders are called upon to work jointly towards ensuring that individuals realise and enjoy their rights and freedoms in the digital space by among others engaging in advocacy, developing policies that address individuals needs.

Find the report here.

#FIFAfrica20 |

Day Two: Tuesday, 29 September 2020

The seventh edition of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) kicked off on a high with the first day commemorating the International Day of Universal Access to Information (IDUAI)  on which it coincided. Several sessions recognised access to information as one of the pillars for an inclusive digital society including as an enabler for political engagement, empowerment, transparency and accountability.  Data privacy, strategic litigation, elections, consumer protection, content regulation,  network disruptions and countering misinformation and tech innovation in times of Covid-19 were among the topics featured in sessions in addition to skills building in data literacy and digital security.

Day two of FIFAfrica20 will be just as exciting and packed with an amazing lineup of sessions! These include a  conversation with writer and political analyst, Nanjala Nyabola, academic, social justice activist and aspiring politician, alongside Dr. Stella Nyanzi who will engage on a range of issues including civic space, politics and democracy through to researching feminism in Africa.

In Kenya, the Lawyers Hub will host a session titled Can You Hear Me? The Realities of Meaningful Connectivity in Kenya during which they will explore what needs to be done to provide meaningful access to the internet in the  country. This thread of questioning will continue in a session hosted by Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) who are to launch a report on equal and equitable access to the internet and the right to education in South Africa following two years of research alongside Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, ALT Advisory, Acacia Economics, and Media Monitoring Africa.

CIPESA will launch its annual State of Internet Freedom in Africa report themed Resetting Digital Rights Amidst the Covid-19 Fall Out. Another launch will be that of the #RestoreDataRights Declaration which sets out guiding principles for data use during Covid-19 and a Call to Action for civil society, academics, and allies; governments; the African Union, United Nations, and international development partners. The Declaration is an initiative of the Open Institute and Data Ready.

The Global Encryption Coalition (GEC) will host a dialogue on Encryption and the Africa Region which will introduce the Coalition to the FIFAfrica20 community. It will also scope out the landscape of threats to encryption in order to enhance understanding of the issues as it pertains to the different contexts on the continent and identify possible areas for cooperation.

Africa Digital Rights Fund (ADRF) grantee, iWatch Africa  will host a session on Countering Online Abuse and Harassment of Journalists and Rights Activists in Africa. Often, journalists who report on contested social and political issues increasingly find themselves the target of abuse through social media, online comment fora and other online means, in some cases including violent threats of death and rape. According to the 2018 International Press Institute (IPI) report, 31 percent of journalists tone down coverage of certain stories after being abused and harassed online, while 15 percent drop their stories altogether. Among the issues that iWatch’s session will address include the role of journalists, governments, law enforcement and civil society in dealing with online abuse and harassment in the Ghana context.

With the burgeoning digital economy in recent months, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) will host the Building Inclusive Digital Economies Across Africa session which will examine successful efforts that support small businesses and entrepreneurs across Africa in transitioning operations online. It will also explore the topics of digital commerce, inclusivity and resilience as well as strategize ways to advance multi-stakeholder policy discussions that shape an enabling environment for a competitive digital economy across Africa.

Meanwhile, Ford Foundation will host an Ask the Donor’s session which will explore best practices from the field on how organizations can re-establish norms and relationships with funders and donors in the age of Covid-19. Representatives from the Omidyar Network, Open Technology Fund (OTF), and the Internet Society Foundation, will provide perspectives about where they see things headed in the future and how organizations can best position themselves for support post-pandemic.

At the FIFAfrica20 hub in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Zaina Foundation will convene a workshop to deliberate on digital rights in Tanzania with reference to the shrinking environment for advocacy work in the run up to the October 2020 general elections. At another FIFAfrica20 hub in Dakar, Senegal, stakeholders (state, private sector and civil society) will engage on misinformation and its impact on freedom of expression online during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Continuing from day one will be the Data Skills Foundation Course, with guest speaker Nelson Kwaje of #DefyHateNow South Sudan who will share his experience on data-driven projects on misinformation, hate speech and freedom of expression online. Furthermore, the Digital Security Hub, featuring multilingual (English, French and Arabic) tech security experts from across the continent, on hand to provide personal and organisation digital security support.

Join the community attending FIFAfrica20 here.