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Category Archives: Online Freedoms

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15Feb

#KeepItOn: Nigeria Urged to Ensure Online Communications Remain Accessible During Elections

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By Juliet Nanfuka |

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has joined the #KeepItOn coalition in urging the Nigerian Authorities to ensure that access to digital communications remains open before, during and after the elections which take place on February 16, 2019.

The call implores the state to reaffirm its commitment to keep the internet during this critical political time. It also notes that a shutdown down could cost the country an estimated $134,251,654 per day in direct economic costs, and impact on the realization of economic, social, and cultural rights broadly.

Disruptions to online communications contribute to economic impacts which persist far beyond the days in which access is disrupted due to systemic effects which harm efficiency throughout the economy. Internet shutdowns, however short-lived, undermine economic growth, and erode business confidence as global and national perceptions on the offending country are also affected.

Framework for Calculating the Economic Impact of Internet Shutdowns in Sub-Sahara Africa

Meanwhile, concerns of a shutdown have remained among citizens, leading to information being shared on how to stay online in the event of a network disruption.

Increasingly, disruptions to communications have occurred around election times and during public protest often related to the political regime.  Among some of the cases  include  Equatorial Guinea which in November 2016 blocked access to the internet and to opposition websites ahead of a nationwide election; Uganda also in 2016, blocked access to social media sites and mobile money transactions on two occasions due to election related events; while that same year, Gabon blocked social media access and also imposed a curfew on internet access following widespread conflicts disputed presidential election results. Last year, Togo interrupted communication following public protests against President Gnassingbe, whose family has ruled the country for over half a century. At the start of this year, DR Congo blocked access to “preserve public order after ‘fictitious results’ started circulating on social media.”  

See the joint letter on keeping the internet open and secure here.

16Jan

CIPESA and OpenNet Africa Join Public Call Against  Internet Shutdown in Zimbabwe

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By Juliet Nanfuka |
Zimbabwe has experienced a shutdown of social media platforms and major websites as of January 15, 2019 following public protests against a 150% increase in fuel prices. The protests have resulted in the death of at least eight people and arrest of up to 200 others. The disruptions to online communications were reported on social media and also confirmed by network measurements conducted by Netblocks.


The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and its internet freedoms initiative OpenNet Africa have joined over 20 civil society organisations in calling for the restoration of internet access in the country. A letter sent to Kazembe Kazembe, the Minister of Information Communication Technology and Cyber Security, implores the government to “ensure the stability and openness of the internet in Zimbabwe.” The letter was delivered as part of the #KeepItOn coalition, which represents more than 175 organisations in 60 countries.
As at time of writing, no statement on the shut down had been released by the government, telecommunications companies, or the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ).
The shutdown is doing little to alleviate the economic crisis in Zimbabwe. Projections show that the country can lose at least USD 5.7 million per day in direct economic costs, according to estimates using the COST tool by NetBlocks and the Internet Society. The tool references a framework for calculating the economic impact of shutdowns developed by CIPESA.
Further, the economic impact of the shutdown is likely to persist far beyond the days in which access is disrupted due to systemic effects which harm efficiency throughout the economy. Internet shutdowns, however short-lived, undermine economic growth, and erode business confidence as global and national perceptions on the offending country are also affected.
The joint letter notes that the UN Human Rights Committee, the official interpreter of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), emphasises in General Comment no. 34 that restrictions on speech online must be strictly necessary and proportionate to achieve a legitimate purpose.  Shutdowns, by contrast, disproportionately impact all users, and unnecessarily restrict access to information and emergency services during crucial moments. Shutdowns are neither necessary to, nor effective at, achieving a legitimate aim, as they often spread confusion and encourage more people to join public demonstrations.
CIPESA research recommends that governments should desist from ordering shutdowns because they have a high economic impact at micro and macro levels, adversely affecting the livelihoods of citizens, undermining the profitability of business enterprises, and reducing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and competitiveness of countries that implement them. This is also why CIPESA is part of the global campaign #ForTheWeb aimed to get governments, companies and the public to stand up for a  free, open and fair web that works for everyone, everywhere.
See the joint letter here.

10Dec

NetBlocks and the Internet Society Launch Tool to Calculate the Cost of Internet Censorship Worldwide

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News Update |

A new tool to support internet freedom is being launched by NetBlocks and the Internet Society, a global non-profit organisation dedicated to the open development, use and evolution of the Internet.

Launch COSTRun the Cost of Shutdown Tool

The organisations have partnered up to build COST, a tool that seeks to measure the economic cost of internet disruptions to support the adoption of rights-based internet governance around the world.

The Cost of Shutdown Tool (COST) launches today to mark the 70th Anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enacted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.

COST is a data-driven policy tool that automates the task of assessing the economic impact of internet shutdowns, mobile data blackouts and social media restrictions including throttling.

COST performs calculations by country, type of disruption and length of time, combining thousands of development indicators in real time to offer insights into the impact of internet governance and misgovernance on sustainable development, human rights and digital prosperity.

“This tool will empower the next stage of data-driven advocacy. By calculating numbers in real time, COST will allows us to communicate to governments and technology companies on how much revenue they’re losing when they disrupt the internet. We hope by the tool will make governments think twice before threatening internet freedom, ” Hannah Machlin, Global Advocacy Manager for the NetBlocks Group, said.

“ We believe the opportunities brought by the Internet should be available for everyone and a tool such as COST can help governments understand the economic impact of shutting down or blocking the Internet.  While we can’t quantify the human cost of switching off the Internet, this helps quantify the economic cost,” explains Constance Bommelaer de Leusse, Senior Director Global Internet Policy for The Internet Society.

The COST tool is built upon established research papers published by the Brookings Institution for global coverage and a specialised model by CIPESA for sub-Saharan Africa, taking into account indirect economic factors and informal economies that play a major role in the region. Economic indicators are integrated from open data sources including the World Bank, ITU and Eurostat.

You can read more about it here.

12Oct

Why are African Governments Criminalising Online Speech? Because They Fear Its Power.

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By Nwachukwu Egbunike |
Africa’s landscape of online free speech and dissent is gradually, but consistently, being tightened. In legal and economic terms, the cost of speaking out is rapidly rising across the continent.
While most governments are considered democratic in that they hold elections with multi-party candidates and profess participatory ideals, in practice, many operate much closer dictatorships — and they appear to be asserting more control over digital space with each passing day.
Cameroon, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Benin have in the recent past witnessed internet shutdowns, the imposition of taxes on blogging and social media use, and the arrest of journalists. Media workers and citizens have been jailed on charges ranging from publishing “false information” to exposing state secrets to terrorism.
At the recent Forum of Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFA) held in Accra, Ghana, a group of panelists from various African countries all said they feared African governments were interested in controlling digital space to keep citizens in check.
Many countries have statutes and laws which guarantee the right to free expression. In Nigeria, for example, the Freedom of Information Act grants citizens the right to demand information from any government agency. Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution provides for freedom of the press and Section 39 maintains that “every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including the freedom to hold and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference…”
Yet, Nigeria has issued other laws that authorities use to deny these aforementioned rights.
Section 24 of Nigeria’s Cybercrime Act criminalises “anyone who spreads messages he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message to be sent.”
Making laws with ambiguous and subjective terms like “inconvenience” or “insult” calls for concern. Governments and their agents often use this as a cover to suppress freedom of expression.
Who determines the definition of an insult? Should public officials expect to develop a thick skin? In many parts of the world, citizens have the right to criticise public officials. Why don’t Africans have the right to offend as an essential part of free expression?
In 2017 and 2016, Nigerian online journalists and bloggers Abubakar Sidiq Usman and Kemi Olunloyo were each booked on spurious charges of cyber-stalking in connection with journalistic investigations on the basis of the Cybercrime Act.

Don’t suffer in silence — keep talking

The very existence of these legal challenges tells citizens that their voices matter. From Tanzania’s prohibition on spreading “false, deceptive, misleading or inaccurate” information online to Uganda’s tax on social media that is intended to curb “gossip”, the noise made on digital platforms scares oppressive regimes. In some cases, it may even lead to them to rescind their actions.
The experience of the Zone9 bloggers of Ethiopia provides a powerful example.
In 2014, nine Ethiopian writers were jailed and tortured over a collective blogging project in which they wrote about human rights violations by Ethiopia’s former government, daring to speak truth to power. The state labeled the group “terrorists”for their online activity and incarcerated them for almost 18 months.

Zone9 members Mahlet (left) and Zelalem (right) rejoiced at the release of Befeqadu Hailu (second from left, in scarf) in October 2015. Photo shared on Twitter by Zelalem Kiberet.

Six members of the now liberated group made their premier international engagement in Ghana during FIFA conference: Atnaf Berhane, Befeqadu Hailu Techane, Zelalem Kibret, Natnael Feleke Aberra, and Abel Wabella were all in attendance. Jomanex Kasaye, who had worked with the group prior to the arrests (but was not arrested) also attended.
Several members had collaborated with Global Voices to write and translate stories into the Amharic. As members of the community, Global Voices campaigned and mobilised the global human rights community to speak out about their case from the very first night they were arrested.
After months of writing stories and promoting their case on Twitter, international condemnation of their arrest and imprisonment began to flow from governments and prominent human rights leaders, alongside hundreds of thousands of online supporters. From the four-compass points of the world, a mighty cry arose demanding the Ethiopian government to free the Zone9 bloggers.
In their remarks at FIFA, the bloggers said that their membership in the Global Voices community was key to visibility during their time in prison. In their panel session, they credited Global Voices’ campaign for keeping them alive.
Berhan Taye, the panel moderator, asked the group to recount their prison experiences. As they spoke, the lights on the stage dimmed. Their voices filled the room with a quiet power.
Abel Wabella, who ran Global Voices’ Amharic site, lost hearing in one ear due to the torture he endured after refusing to sign a false confession.
Atnaf Berhane recalled that one of his torture sessions lasted until 2 a.m. and then continued after he had a few hours of sleep.
One of the security agents who arrested Zelalem Kibret had once been Kibret’s student at the university where he taught.
Jomanex Kasaye recounted the mental agony of leaving Ethiopia before his friends were arrested — the anguish of powerlessness — the unending suspense and fear that his friends would not make it out alive.

Zone9 bloggers together in Addis Ababa, 2012. From left: Endalk, Soleyana, Natnael, Abel, Befeqadu, Mahlet, Zelalem, Atnaf, Jomanex. Photo courtesy of Endalk Chala.

With modesty, the Zone9 bloggers said: “We are not strong or courageous people…we are only glad we inspired others.”
Yet, the Zone9 bloggers redefined patriotism with both their words and actions. It takes immense courage to love one’s country even after suffering at its hands for speaking out.
Ugandan journalist Charles Onyango-Obbo, also in attendance at FIFA, shared an Igbo proverb popularised by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe which says:

Since the hunter has learned to shoot without missing, Eneke the bird has also learnt to fly without perching.

In essence, he meant that in order to keep digital spaces free and safe, those involved in this struggle must devise new methods.
Activists on the front lines of free speech in sub-Saharan Africa and across the globe cannot afford to work in silos or go silent in frustration and defeat. With our strength and unity, online spaces will remain free to deepen democracy through vibrant dissent.

10Oct

State of Internet Freedom in Africa 2018 Report Focuses on Privacy and Data Protection

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FIFAfrica18 |
For the fifth year in a row, the Collaboration on International ICT policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has produced a research report on the State of Internet Freedom in Africa, with the 2018 edition focusing on privacy and data protection on the continent. The report was launched at the annual Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica), which took place in Accra, Ghana, at the end of September and can be found here.


While the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is fast growing in Africa, there are several challenges related to privacy and data protection. According to the GSMA, at the end of 2017 Sub-Saharan Africa had over 444 million mobile subscribers representing a 44% penetration rate, while the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) reports that 21.8% of individuals in the continent use the internet. However, as more users come online, many remain unaware of how their privacy rights could be affected by their use of digital technologies.
The report tracks key trends and challenges in recent years that have shaped this area of internet governance and use in the continent.
The report points out that  the state of personal data protection tends to mirror – and to affect – the state of internet freedom in a country. It notes that various African countries are witnessing worrying developments on the internet freedom front including an increase in digital rights violations such as arrests and intimidation of online users, internet blockages and social media shutdowns, and a proliferation of laws and regulations that undermine internet access and affordability, and weaken ICT’s potential to improve livelihoods, catalyse free expression and civic participation.
The countries studied are Burundi, the DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Findings indicate that many states are legitimising and increasing their surveillance capacity, including by requiring mandatory registration of personal details and increasingly compelling service providers to hand over users’ data. The surveillance is often not guided by judicial or other independent oversight, and in some instances there is no clarity as to which individuals and government departments have the authority to order surveillance or demand customers’ meta data from telecom companies.
This means that many government departments make such orders to the operators, who do not have the latitude to reject such requests. Telecom and ISPs are required by law to comply with information requests or requests for surveillance assistance, including the common requirement to install software with the technical capacity to conduct surveillance and to enable active communications monitoring, and to hand over data when asked.
In all countries reviewed, these requests are kept secret so it is difficult to establish the full extent of government requests for users’ data, the surveillance of citizens’ communications, and censorship of content. What is clear though, is that the trend is on the increase, and the types of user’s’ information which governments request is varied.
Additionally, a common trend in the countries studied, as well as around Africa, is the adoption of mandatory SIM card registration which requires that subscribers furnish telecom companies with extensive personal details, including names, home addresses and their National Identification details. In the absence of comprehensive privacy and data protection laws (and accompanying practice by government agencies and telcos that robustly protects such data), this data is at tremendous risk of abuse by state and non-state actors.
Despite the constitutions of numerous countries containing provisions that uphold the protection of the rights to privacy, of the 13 countries studied, only Ghana and Senegal have comprehensive privacy and data protection laws. The lack of a comprehensive standalone policy or legislation to protect the right to privacy and data protection was identified as a major weakness, since the provisions were fragmented and contained in various laws and policies, and did not adequately provide for protection of the right.  Some countries such as Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda have data protection bills but the proposed laws have for years failed to progress through their parliaments.
The report noted the low levels of public awareness about privacy and data protection, with many citizens tending to be indifferent to privacy and data protection issues. This low level of awareness among the public of privacy issues in the digital environment, a lack of transparency by data controllers, insufficient procedural guarantees, and limited independent oversight over the implementation of privacy and data protection, mirrors many other facets of the internet governance arena, and negatively impacts users’ digital rights. In turn, efforts to promote strong privacy and data protection regimes should go in tandem with multi-stakeholder efforts to advance broader internet freedoms in Africa.
See the full report which includes the various African Instruments on Privacy and Personal Data Protection, data collection programmes by governments, legal responsibilities of business entities as well as recommendations to the state, civil society, academia, the tech community and civil society.
 

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