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30Oct

Tanzania’s Internet Disruption Undermines Electoral Integrity and Imperils Livelihoods

Author CIPESA Posted on

By CIPESA Staff | 

The ongoing internet disruption in Tanzania is gravely undermining the integrity of the country’s general elections and jeopardising livelihoods. With citizens unable to access credible and diverse information, the blackout not only erodes public trust but also risks intensifying ongoing demonstrations. It further prevents citizens, journalists, and civil society actors from documenting human rights violations committed by security agencies and other actors.

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) expresses solidarity with the people of Tanzania and joins the local and international community in urging the Government of Tanzania to immediately and fully restore internet access and to refrain from any form of network disruption.

CIPESA has joined numerous international organisations in calling on Tanzania’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to uphold digital rights and to keep the internet on before, during, and after the elections.

CIPESA also supports the #KeepItOn coalition which is a global network of more than 345 organisations across 106 countries working to end internet shutdowns in its appeal to President Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan to publicly commit to ensuring that all people in Tanzania have unrestricted access to the internet, digital platforms, and communication channels throughout the electoral period.

In addition, CIPESA has joined the Net Rights Coalition, a network of internet freedom advocates working to share knowledge and combat digital rights threats, in calling on the Government of Tanzania to respect and promote digital rights.

These calls come against a backdrop of declining digital freedoms in Tanzania, marked by increasing restrictions on online expression, threats to media independence, and a shrinking civic space. Restoring full internet access is not only a democratic imperative. It is essential for protecting human rights, fostering transparency, and ensuring that citizens can freely participate in shaping their country’s future.

CIPESA’s efforts are in line with the principles of the African Declaration on Digital Freedom and Democracy that emphasises digital democracy as a cornerstone of open, inclusive, and rights-respecting societies.

06Oct

The G20 Should Challenge the Power Dynamics in Digital Public Infrastructure

Author CIPESA Posted on

Juliet Nanfuka |

Data plays a crucial role in T20 discussions at the G20, influencing online interaction and civic engagement. The G20 should use its influence to create a multi-stakeholder agenda for Digital Public Infrastructure design.

Data is at the heart of T20 discussions around the G20, as it informs the architecture of online interaction, civic participation (and exclusion) and the governance of digital society. As such, it is also central to digital public infrastructure (DPI), serving as a foundational requirement and an enabler of new data generation and data mobility. Data drives the three key pillars of DPI – digital identification, digital payments and data exchange – in addition to other emerging features such as geospatial data and data aggregation. However, the expanding role of DPI raises questions about its alignment with constitutional guarantees, data protection frameworks and the lived realities of end users across Africa.

In 2023, India’s G20 presidency laid the foundation for discourse on DPI with great precision. A year later, the 2024 G20 Rio de Janeiro Leaders’ Declaration acknowledged ‘the contribution of digital public infrastructure to an equitable digital transformation’. It went on to note ‘the transformative power of digital technologies to bridge existing divides and empower societies and individuals including all women and girls and people in vulnerable situations. 

Consequently, DPI has been positioned as a necessary tool for international trade facilitation and industrialisation in developing countries. In Africa, this momentum has been supported by strategies such as the AU’s Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020–2030), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the 2024 adoption of the Continental AI Strategy. Various countries across the continent have integrated DPI into their national strategies.

The pace of DPI integration is mirrored by growing financial investment in DPI. Examples include the $200 million Ghana Digital Acceleration Project by the World Bank in 2022 to expand broadband access and strengthen digital innovation ecosystems. In June 2025, the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund Credit Facility funded $10 million to support private sector adaptation to AfCFTA frameworks, with initial commitments to Telecel Global Services to enhance connectivity and regional integration. The company provides wholesale voice and SMS services and enterprise connectivity solutions to more than 250 telecom operators across Africa and globally.

While the expansion of DPI is often framed as a progressive step, it also carries significant governance trade-offs. The expansion of DPI in countries with weak democratic safeguards heightens the risk of state overreach, mass surveillance and reduced civic freedoms, making it essential to set clear limits on state access to citizens’ data to safeguard participation and accountability. Further, concerns over data sovereignty also loom.

Other T20 commentaries have stressed the urgent need for multi-stakeholder engagement to align DPI with the realities of developing countries. Without this alignment, DPI could increase existing regulatory gaps that compromise civic rights and consumer protection, fraud prevention and privacy. Meanwhile, the current wave of DPI design could exclude smaller economies that lack the capacity to engage in complex cross-border arrangements, such as those established between India’s Unified Payments Interface and Singapore’s PayNow. However, efforts such as the East African Community’s Cross-Border Payment System Masterplan aimed at inclusive, secure, efficient and interoperable cross-border payments in the region are underway.

If DPI is deployed without further interrogation, especially within the contexts of lower-income and developing countries that are often still navigating authoritarian systems, there is a risk of introducing yet another form or layer of digital exclusion from the global ecosystem. This could amplify existing national exclusions emerging from lack of access to the basics promised by DPI, such as national identity documents as keys to financial inclusion or access to basic services and civic rights.

When governments replace human interaction with automated systems, they risk ignoring the real-life experiences and needs of people who use – or could use – DPI. Thus, while DPI is being positioned as a solution to the challenges many developing countries are facing, it is important to keep in mind that infrastructure is not neutral. Its built-in biases, risks and design choices will ultimately impact citizens. Thus, for the real impact of DPI to be realised, it is necessary for the G20 to address concerns on:

  • The power affordances embedded in DPI design. The architecture of DPI prioritises the interests of those who design and fund it. The G20 should require that DPI initiatives undergo power mapping to identify who holds decision-making authority, how data flows are controlled and which actors stand to benefit or be marginalised by the design and deployment of DPI.
  • The institutionalisation of regulatory sandboxing. Regulatory sandboxes offer a controlled, transparent environment where DPI tools and policies can be tested for fairness, legality, inclusivity and public interest alignment before full-scale implementation. The G20 should promote the use of regulatory sandboxes as a mechanism to scrutinise DPI systems and their governance frameworks.
  • Strengthen multi-stakeholder inclusion. DPI needs to be built with the participation of more stakeholders – including civil society, private sector actors, academia and marginalised communities – in decision-making. The G20 should use its convening power to set the multi-stakeholder agenda in the design of DPI interventions. 
  • Safeguard data sovereignty. African countries developing data governance frameworks need to balance sovereignty with interoperability, and prevent a dependency on foreign-controlled systems.
  • Enhance public awareness interventions. Despite significant DPI developments, many citizens remain unaware of their implications. The media plays a critical role in bridging this gap. There should be more integration with media partners in furthering public awareness of DPI, its functions and consequences. The G20 should not negate the role of the media in driving public awareness on DPI interventions.

This commentary was first published on the T20 website on October 06, 2025.

29Sep

The African Declaration on Digital Freedom and Democracy

Author CIPESA Posted on

FIFAfrica25 |

The African Declaration on Digital Freedom and Democracy (the declaration) was adopted in Windhoek, Namibia. Spearheaded by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), conveners of the annual Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica), this declaration is a collective statement of principles and commitments by a multi-stakeholder assembly of digital rights actors from across Africa and beyond. 

For decades, Namibia has demonstrated unmatched commitment to democratic governance, press freedom, and inclusive digital development.  It holds a unique and powerful legacy in the global media and information landscape, having been the birthplace of the 1991 Windhoek Declaration on Promoting Independent and Pluralistic Media and the Windhoek+30 Declaration of 2021, which expanded the 1991 Windhoek principles to the digital age and reaffirmed that information is a public good.

In the digital age, where emerging challenges such as information integrity, Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance, connectivity gaps, and platform accountability continue to shape our societies, the hosting of FIFAfrica and the unveiling of the African Declaration on Digital Freedom and Democracy in Namibia mark a historic milestone for the digital rights movement across the continent.

This Declaration reaffirms our collective commitment to advancing digital democracy as a cornerstone of open, inclusive, and rights-respecting societies. It reflects our shared readiness to champion access to information, information integrity, data governance, online safety, and digital resilience.

These principles are not just aspirations—they are fundamental tenets of modern democracy. As Africa navigates the complexities of the digital era, this Declaration serves as a guiding framework to ensure that technology empowers rather than excludes, protects rather than exploits, and strengthens rather than undermines democratic values. For us, internet freedom is freedom from digitally-enabled oppression and exploitation, and freedom for shaping technology to serve the full development of Africa’s people and environment.

Preamble

We, the undersigned participants of FIFAfrica25, representing civil society, the tech community, media, the business sector, and individuals across Africa:

Confronted by the reality that nearly half of African citizens still do not have access to the internet and that this digital divide excludes them from exercising any of their rights online;

Guided by the reality that digital technologies now shape and inform nearly every aspect of the human experience, from civic participation and economic opportunity to education, health, and justice;

Recognising that while technological advancement presents extraordinary opportunities to enhance the protection of human rights, it also poses grave risks to democratic participation, social justice, and freedoms across Africa;

Acknowledging that Africa, as the youngest continent rich in cultures, languages, social fabrics, and economic potential, is nonetheless confronted with worrying democratic regression and the misuse of digital technologies that deepen exclusion and exacerbate harms, as well as unequal standards by international tech companies in terms of human rights protection and promotion in our countries;

Affirming that at the intersection of democracy, society, and digital technology lies the opportunity for Africans to transform and harness technology as an enabler of improved services and the enjoyment of human rights for all;

Reaffirming the importance of existing continental declarations and frameworks such as the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms, the M20 Declaration on Information Integrity for the public good, the Model Law on Access to Information, the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa and the recent digital resolutions 620, 630, 631 and 639 at  the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR);

Guided by complementary frameworks including the African Union Digital Transformation Strategy (2020–2030), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Digital Trade Protocol, and the AU Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy, which collectively signal Africa’s determination to build a progressive, inclusive, and rights-respecting digital democracy;

Committed to ensuring that technology serves as a tool of empowerment and inclusion rather than exclusion, placing Africa’s citizens at the heart of digital democracy while upholding the necessary safeguards for fundamental freedoms;

Recognising that as technology continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, deliberate action is required to ensure that its commercial drivers and related architectures are shaped to strengthen rather than undermine democratic values;

Affirm through this Digital Democracy Declaration for Africa, our shared vision of a continent where technology advances human rights, safeguards freedoms, and strengthens inclusive democratic participation.

Determined to defend and advance the rights, freedoms, and security of all Africans in the digital era;

Do hereby adopt this Declaration on Digital Freedom and Democracy.

Our Principles

  1. Universal Access, Meaningful Inclusion:
    1. Every African has the right to affordable, safe, and meaningful access to the internet, regardless of gender, age, location, ability, language, or socio-economic status.
    2. Internet shutdowns should never be implemented as tools of control. All forms of network disruptions must be stopped and digital inclusion prioritised to bridge digital divides.
    3. Digital spaces must be protected as arenas for free expression, access to information, peaceful assembly, and association, and spaces where privacy is respected, thus enabling citizens to engage without fear of censorship, intimidation or reprisal. A democratic Africa is one where citizens can confidently challenge power online and offline.
    4. Political participation online must reflect the diversity of Africa’s peoples, ensuring gender equality, youth participation, and the inclusion of historically marginalised groups.
  1. Transparency, Oversight and Accountability:
    • Governments and private actors must be transparent about how digital technologies are designed, deployed, and governed. Accountability mechanisms must protect and enhance the rights of citizens. Independent oversight and accountability mechanisms that protect citizens from unchecked surveillance, manipulation, and digital repression should be established and operationalised.
  2. People-centred Digital Transformation:
    • Digital systems must be designed to serve people first. Every innovation must advance human dignity, agency, and rights. We reiterate that Africa’s digital future cannot be built on systems that surveil, exclude, or exploit people and citizens.
    • The digital divide structures access to information and impacts people differently. It is critical that the needs of marginalised groups, whether by urban rural sex or age, are specifically addressed in efforts to ensure technology is people-centred.
    • Governments must develop people-centered laws and policies that promote affordable, secure, and universal internet access supported by inclusive ICT infrastructure developed through public-private partnerships.
    • Accountability of digital operators is needed to ensure public interest prerogatives are respected, and this requires multistakeholder engagement and independent regulatory and governance processes.
  3. Electoral and Political Rights:
    • Electoral processes in both online and offline respects must be transparent, independently monitored, and guided by impartial institutions to promote and enhance accountability
    • Voters must be guaranteed safety before, during, and after elections, including protection from physical violence, digital harassment, and state repression.
    • Political participation is not limited to elections—it encompasses civic engagement, peaceful assembly, association, access to information and free expression both online and offline.
    • Civic engagement and digital participation must be protected as pillars of accountability.
    • Misinformation and disinformation, along with hate speech, affect information integrity during elections, thereby putting election integrity into question. Any measures to address information integrity must comply with international human rights law.
  4. Civil Liberties:
    • The rule of law must protect political dissent and freedom of expression online and offline.
    • Practices that undermine democracy, including undue and unwarranted surveillance, censorship, cyberattacks and the criminalisation of speech including imprisonment, harassment, or physical violence targeting dissenters should be stopped.
  • Data Justice:
    • Data can be an enabler or disabler of human rights. It must be governed with justice, sovereignty, equity, and ethics at its core. Privacy, informed and active agency over consent and accountability are non-negotiable. Policies must protect individuals from targeted exploitation and abuse by states and corporations, while upholding data sovereignty and ensuring the use of this asset for the benefit of all.
    • Regional economic blocs must commit to harmonising digital rights frameworks across member states, reducing fragmentation and ensuring continent-wide protection of freedoms.
    • Data holders in both public and private sectors should be subject to transparent and open. access regimes that are guided by public interest criteria, with only narrowly framed exceptions that accord with international standards of legality, legitimate purpose, necessity and proportionality rationales for refusing disclosure.
  • Digital Resilience and Security
    • Societies must be protected from digital harms such as disinformation, cyberattacks, and tech-facilitated violence against women and vulnerable communities, which are used to violate the rights to expression, equality, privacy and dignity of these persons. The responsibility for protection should not be the sole burden of individuals.
    • Protection must be through rights-respecting safeguards without compromising  fundamental freedoms.  Safeguards must strengthen trust, protect electoral cycle processes, defend the media, public protest, and secure online communities while fully upholding rights.
    • Resilience requires African stakeholders to work collectively to empower internet users with critical agency about their right to a free, rights-respecting and open internet.
  • Innovation for Equity:
    • Emerging technologies and approaches, from artificial intelligence (AI) to digital public infrastructure, must be designed, developed, adopted and deployed to promote fairness, equity, sustainability, democracy and transparency, while safeguarding all individuals against bias, surveillance, and exploitation.
    • Governments, the private sector including the tech community and other stakeholders must  ensure these technologies advance shared prosperity rather than entrenching the power and interests of the privileged.
    • Incentives should be put in place for Africa-centric innovations, involving African data, rather than exclusive reliance on imported technology and services.
  • Universality of Rights
    • All people, regardless of who they are or where they live, must  enjoy equitable rights and freedoms. The right to access, use, and shape digital technologies is a direct extension of fundamental human rights.

Calls To Action

We, the undersigned further call upon governments, regional bodies, big tech and corporations, media, civil society, and citizens to commit to:

Governments

  • Protect democratic spaces online and offline, and to ensure that policies and laws uphold fundamental rights and freedoms.
  • Adhere to and domesticate progressive frameworks built upon public consultation efforts and embedding them into national digital strategies.
  • Reject network disruptions and refrain from using internet shutdowns, social media shutdowns or throttling as tools of information control, especially during times of public interest such as elections and protests.
  • Support the establishment of independent regulatory bodies, free from political interference, to ensure trust, safety, and accountability in digital governance.
  • Take deliberate measures, including sustained investment, public-private partnerships,and digital literacy initiatives, to expand affordable, reliable internet infrastructure and ensure meaningful access for marginalised and  underserved communities.
  • Invest in affordable and reliable internet infrastructure, and prioritize marginalized and underserved communities.
  • Introduce enabling regulation and financing for community-centred connectivity initiatives, public access, access in schools and universities and partnerships with the private sector and civil society.

Regional Bodies

  • Harmonise digital rights frameworks across member states to reduce fragmentation and protect freedoms continent-wide.
  • Actively monitor and publicly hold states accountable for digital rights violations such as shutdowns, surveillance overreach, and censorship, especially during elections.
  • Support democratic consolidation by monitoring elections, promoting digital rights, and ensuring states uphold their obligations under African and international frameworks.
  • Advance digital inclusion by prioritising cross-border connectivity and ensuring affordable access to information infrastructure.
  • Support pan-African approaches towards ensuring that foreign data holders provide access to African stakeholders at the highest standards where they do so in other parts of the world.

Big Tech and Corporations with digital and democratic significance

  • Respect and integrate African social and linguistic standards in platform design, data governance, and content moderation practices.
  • Increase transparency and measures around algorithms, data practices, and the handling of harmful content.
  • Invest in public interest media and digital literacy initiatives that counter disinformation and strengthen civic participation and engagement.
  • Partner with African institutions, including civil society, media, academia and tech hubs to support inclusive digital economies without reinforcing dependency or exploitation.

Civil Society

  • Champion the principles of digital democracy by holding governments and corporations accountable to transparency, fairness, and rights-based governance.
  • Strengthen cross-border coalitions to push back against practices such as internet shutdowns, unlawful surveillance, and exclusionary digital policies.
  • Amplify the voices of marginalised groups by ensuring that digital transformation agendas reflect the lived realities of all Africans.
  • Research and monitor online opportunities and threats to human rights in Africa, including the performance of platforms and AI services in these respects.

Citizens

  • Meaningfully and purposefully participate actively in digital spaces through exercising freedoms of expression, assembly, association and public engagements.
  • Demand accountability from leaders and tech companies over data collection, processing and management.
  • In promoting digital democracy, act ethically and accountably in terms of respect for human rightswhen using digital technologies, fact-check, and ensure that the digital rights of others are respected.

All stakeholders

  • Join the movement for #InternetFreedomAfrica by sharing experiences and advocating for meaningful, inclusive access to the internet in your community.

Media:

  • Act as watchdogs to raise awareness and monitor digital governance regimes, safeguard electoral integrity, amplify diverse voices, and counter disinformation that undermines democratic participation.

Do you want to endorse the declaration? Please complete this form to give a reaction or to add your name to the African Declaration on Digital Freedom and Democracy!

Our Call to Action

The African Declaration on Digital Freedom and Democracy is not a conclusion, but a continuous process that should operate in tandem with the evolving needs of society, democratic participation and technology.

We, the undersigned call upon individuals, communities, and institutions across Africa to support this declaration and undertake efforts to ensure that the underlying principles are protected, respected, and promoted by all stakeholders for an inclusive, improved and favourable civic space:

This Declaration is endorsed by the following organisations, the tech community, media, business sector and individuals:

  1. Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)
  2. AfricTivistes
  3. KICTANet
  4. Paradigm Initiative (PIN)
  5. Access Now
  6. NMT Media Foundation
  7. International Media Support
  8. South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef)
  9. Media Monitoring Africa

22Sep

FIFAfrica25 Invites YOU to “Be The Experience”!

Author CIPESA Posted on

FIFAfrica25 |

This year, we invite participants of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica25) to “Be the experience!” The Forum will encourage attendees, onsite or participating remotely to engage in various interactions that bring digital rights issues to life.  These experiences aim to break down barriers between complex digital rights policy concepts and real-world lived experiences. Ultimately, whether you are a policymaker, activist, journalist, academic, technologist, or artist, FIFAfrica25 will have a space for you to contribute.

Here is what we have lined up: 

  • An online community of attendees already meeting and engaging with each other on various topics. Be sure to be registered on the event platform to join in. 
  • An immersive exhibition where various organisations and individuals will share their work and artworks.
  • A biker doing a round trip across 10 countries (more details below) to advance the call for the #RoadToDigitalSafety 

A Run for #InternetFreedomAfrica that aims to bring together participants to jog, or walk in solidarity with the call for a free, fair and open internet. More details below.

“Be The Experience” and Win!

We have some goodies lined up to reward those who have lived up to the FIFAfrica’s Be The Experience experience, this could be through vibrant engagement that gets you high scores on the event leader board, sharing compelling post online – and tagging us, through to active engagement in sessions and with the different exhibitors at the Forum.  Use the hashtags #InternetFreedomAfrica and #FIFAfrica25 to join a vibrant community working to shape a more open, inclusive, and rights-respecting digital future for the continent. Be sure to also follow CIPESA (@cipesaug) on X, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The Journey To FIFAfrica25 Already Begun

A week ago, Andrew Gole set off on an extraordinary solo motorbike journey that will span over 13,000 km across 10 African countries. His mission is to ride from Uganda all the way to Windhoek, Namibia – arriving just in time for the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica25) where he will also be part of the Digital Security Hub. Here are some pictures of Gole at the Kenya – Uganda border alongside members of the bikers club the accompanied him from Kampala to the border.

Andrew Gole set off from Kampala, Uganda on September 12, 2025 and as of today, has traversed five of the ten countries he is expected to journey through on hos #RoadToDigitalSafey.

Join the Run for #InternetFreedomAfrica Is Heading to Windhoek


We are taking the movement for digital rights beyond the conference halls and onto the streets. On September 24, 2025, join a community of attendees and everyday internet users for a run and walk that celebrates our collective call for a free, open and secure internet across Africa.

The run is set to coincide with the arrival of Andrew Gole who is riding from Uganda to Namibia. By being a part of the run – and several other morning runs that will be part of the Forum (look out for updates in the event platform).  Whether you’re jogging, walking, or cheering from the sidelines, the Run for Internet Freedom is a moment to be part of a movement that builds digital resilience. digital inclusion and pushes back against digital repression.

More details will be shared about the run soon.

15Sep

Digital Access As A Tool To Defend Democracy

Author CIPESA Posted on

By Juliet Nanfuka | 

The link between digital access and democracy has come to inform civic engagement, access to information and freedom of expression in Africa. With most of the continent navigating flawed or fragile democracies, digital access has become a tool of both empowerment for citizens, and a tool of control by states. This makes the International Day of Democracy a vital commemoration of what is at risk if democracy is not defended. 

This year, in various African countries, through affronts to the media, clampdown on critical voices and opposition actors as well as network disruptions, states have used their position to undermine human rights and breed  distrust in electoral integrity.

Since July 2024, a block to internet access remains enforced in the Equatorial Guinean island of Annobón following public protest against environmental degradation by Somagec, a Moroccan construction company. Despite the public outcries, the company’s operations on the island continue. Equatorial Guinea, is headed by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Africa’s longest-serving president. His son serves as the Vice President and is accused of spending state funds on a lavish lifestyle.

In Kenya, in the wake of a May 2025 landmark ruling against network disruptions, a Telegram block was initiated. The disruption occurred close to the anniversary of the June 2024 protests against the rising cost of living in the country that resulted in the #RejectThefinanceBill outcry. The May ruling noted that disruptions to digital access are unconstitutional and amount to the violation of fundamental rights.

On September 6, 2025, the online license of the popular online discussion group, JamiiForums was suspended by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA)  for three months for reportedly publishing content that violates the Electronic and Postal Communications Regulations regarding online content. In a public post, Jamii Forums noted that TCRA’s decision arose from the platform’s publication of details of share ownership in Tanzania’s largest coal mine (Ngaka), as well as reports about meetings between the President of Tanzania and controversial Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo  “without verifying the facts.” In a statement, Community to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Regional Director Angela Quintal noted that, “JamiiForums’ suspension is the latest sign of the Tanzanian government’s deepening suppression of public discourse and raises concerns about access to information ahead of the October 29 elections.”

Meanwhile, Uganda remains in the shadow of a Facebook block initiated nearly five years ago ahead of the 2021 elections. On January 11, 2021 Facebook suspended the accounts of a number of government officials and members of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party  for what it described as Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour (CIB) aimed at manipulating public debate. Twitter (now X) also suspended similar accounts. The state consequently blocked social media access and thereafter access to the entire internet and mobile money services. Although access to the internet and mobile money services was restored a few days after the January 14, 2021 election, access to Facebook remains blocked. Uganda heads to the polls in early 2026 and will see incumbent Yoweri Museveni run for re-election in a bid to extend his 40-year rule.

In the 2024 edition of the State of Internet Freedom in Africa report, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) highlighted the interplay between technology and elections and the practice of the majority of authoritarian governments to selectively limit access as a tool to exert power.

The report indicated various concerns including the intensification of digital authoritarianism amidst shrinking civic space. It noted that digital surveillance has become a defining tool of state power, moving beyond traditional intelligence agencies into everyday governance through digital ID  projects, biometric databases, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) networks, and covert spyware. All this in contexts where there are weak safeguards for personal data and insufficient regulatory oversight, leaving citizens vulnerable.

Meanwhile, misinformation and disinformation, significantly enhanced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated content, adds yet another threat electoral processes. It is increasingly distorting public perception and undermines informed decision-making, particularly in contexts with low digital literacy. This is in addition to the use of bots and paid  influencers to amplify propaganda and “demote” opposing views, making inauthentic content appear genuine. Social media platforms are often criticised for deploying insufficient resources for content moderation in Africa, leading to slow responses and poor enforcement of policies against harmful content, including online gender-based violence.

Ultimately, more actors in the digital ecosystem including civil society organisations, the tech community, media and academia should leverage their watchdog role to document digital rights abuses; educate and raise awareness on the importance of access to information, free expression, data privacy; and promote equitable AI governance, in order to advance transparency and accountability of platforms and governments.
At the upcoming September 24-26, 2025, Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFafrica25), a series of sessions will critically examine digital democracy on the continent. The goal is to chart practical pathways for strengthening civic participation and ensuring that Africa’s digital future is inclusive, accountable, and rights-respecting.

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