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07Jun

Uganda: New social media tax will push basic connectivity further out of reach for millions

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By Alliance For Affordable Internet |
Uganda’s government has passed a new tax that will require citizens to pay UGX 200 (US$0.05) per day in order to use messaging and voice over-the-top services (OTTs), including Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Viber. The tax, slated to take effect on 1 July, will push the cost of basic internet access further out of reach for millions of low-income Ugandans. The government must take urgent action to reverse this measure.
The Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill 2018, passed last week by the Ugandan Parliament, calls for telecommunications service operators providing data used to access OTTs to pay an excise duty on this access. According to Reuters, the country’s mobile network operators are likely to pass these costs on to consumers, levying a daily tax on each SIM card used to access the relevant platforms and services. The impact on consumers in Uganda — and particularly on low-income users — will be significant, and is likely to force many of these users to curb their internet usage, or to forego access entirely.
Only five other countries in Africa (where data was available) have more expensive mobile internet plans than Uganda. At the end of 2016, a 1GB mobile broadband plan in Uganda cost more than 15% of average monthly income. This high cost is keeping Ugandans offline — according to the GSMA, individual mobile internet subscriber rates in Uganda stand at just 18% of the population.
The true cost to connect is even higher for those earning less than the average national income (i.e., less than US$630/year). For the lowest income group in Uganda (see graph below), purchasing the same 1GB plan costs them 30% of their average monthly income. With the excise duty in place, this cost to connect for Uganda’s poorest will jump by 10%, resulting in just 1GB of data costing them nearly 40% of their average monthly income. The richest Ugandans will also experience an increase of 1% in their cost to connect, and by and large, this new excise duty disproportionately and negatively impacts low-income Ugandans and their ability to affordably access the internet.

he Ugandan government has argued that such a tax is necessary both to reduce gossip (“lugambo”) on these platforms, and to raise funds needed to address the impacts of comments made on social media that are critical of the government. However, it has not provided any explanation as to how such a tax might change what people say on the platforms, nor how the funds collected would be used to address these impacts.
The government has also argued that this tax will help promote local content development by placing a tax on “imported content.”  As consumers increasingly shift toward data-based services, mobile operators will have new opportunities to develop and offer their own OTT services on their networks. However, the current language in the bill makes the duty applicable to all voice and messaging OTTs, including those that could potentially be developed by mobile operators or Ugandan firms. This is precisely why regulators in other countries have opted not to intervene on OTTs — so that local companies can innovate and create jobs and value in the telecoms market. The government of Nigeria, for example, previously considered a tax on internet use, which was eventually scrapped as a result of studies showing it would make access unaffordable for millions of people.
For other local firms that rely on voice and messaging apps for sales and service, for example when they use WhatsApp to communicate with customers, this duty will hurt their businesses. Finally, from a consumer view, these services offer value for money to communicate and share with others beyond what existing voice and messaging services can provide.
Stifling internet uptake and use is also likely to result in failure to achieve the goals laid out in the Digital Uganda Vision.The ICT sector contributed 3.4% to Uganda’s GDP in 2015, and increasing internet access has the potential to spur significant socio-economic growth — a recent study showed that a 10% increase in mobile broadband penetration can increase economic growth by nearly 3%.
We urge the government of Uganda to:

  • Repeal the excise duty amendment before it goes into effect, and
  • Adopt an evidence-based approach to policy making for the sector, with a specific focus on better broadband planning, increased public access solutions, innovative spectrum policy, and more efficient use of universal service and access funds.

By focusing instead on these areas, the government can have a far more positive impact on increasing internet access, and promoting local content development and innovation.
Featured image: Bustling street scene in Kabale, Uganda (Photo credit: Adam Cohn, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

04Mar

Litigating Against Internet Shutdowns in Cameroon

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By Juliet Nanfuka |
The pushback against internet shutdowns in Cameroon has recently taken a new turn with advocacy organisations filing formal submissions before the Supreme Court of Cameroon. In their January 2018 submission, AccessNow and Internet Sans Frontières (ISF) highlight Cameroon’s commitment to international and regional human rights law and urge judges to recognise that disrupting or blocking the internet is incompatible with the right to free expression and access to information.
Authorities in Cameroon first initiated an internet shutdown in the English-speaking regions on January 17, 2017, which lasted 93 days. The shutdown was imposed in the wake of ongoing strikes, fatal violence and protest action against the continued “francophonisation” and marginalisation of English speakers who claim the central government “privileges the majority French-speaking population and eight other regions.” Cameroon’s constitution recognises the two languages as equal and calls for bilingualism. A second shutdown was effected on October 1, 2017 and some 150 days later, there was still no sign that the shutdown is about to be lifted in the affected Anglophone regions of Southwest and Northwest Cameroon.
The case in which AccessNow and ISF intervened is one of two ongoing cases challenging the January 2017 shutdown. Initiated in April 2017 by Cameroon’s Veritas Law Offices, in collaboration with the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI), the cases are against the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, Cameroon Telecommunications (CamTel) – a private company which dominates the telecoms sector in the country – and the Government of Cameroon.
Litigation has been recognised as a potentially effective tool in removing restrictions on the free flow of information online in countries with repressive internet regimes. Increasingly,  various initiatives are seeking to encourage collaboration across different internet governance actors in strategic litigation for a free and open internet.
AccessNow and ISF’s filing seeks remedy for the shutdown, calling it a violation of citizens’ constitutional rights to freedom of expression and access to information and freedom from discrimination. Indeed, in the submission, the organisations point out that international and regional courts as well as human rights institutions have condemned shutdowns as contrary to the law, unnecessary, and a disproportionate means of achieving their aim.
The filing also to refers to Article 19(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 9 and 27(2) of the African Charter, which state that a limitation or restriction on the right to freedom of expression will only be justifiable where it is (i) provided by law, (ii) serves a legitimate interest, and (iii) is necessary in a democratic society. These articles further state that where a state’s restriction or limitation fails to meet any one of the aforementioned criteria, it will amount to a violation of the right to freedom of expression.
Meanwhile, in November 2016, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted a Resolution in which it expressed its concern over “the emerging practice of State Parties of interrupting or limiting access to telecommunication services such as the Internet, social media and messaging services, increasingly during elections”. It urged state parties “to respect and take legislative and other measures to guarantee, respect and protect citizens’ right to freedom of information and expression through access to Internet services.”
Various countries in Africa, Europe and Asia have experienced various forms of internet disruptions in recent years, some repeatedly like DR Congo, Ethiopia, India, Turkey, and Uganda, often with little legal recourse available to citizens. In the few instances where redress has been sought through courts of law, the proceedings have been slow such as the case of Uganda which called for the 2016 social media and mobile money shutdowns to be classed as illegal in a bid to deter a repeat of similar actions. Indeed, litigation is offering a new frontline in digital rights, such as in the case of the Gambia following the February ruling by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Regional Court of Justice that media laws on sedition, false news and criminal defamation violate the right to freedom of expression. This mirrored the 2015 ruling by the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) which ruled that sections of Burundi’s Press Law of 2013 violated press freedom and democratic principles called for them to be repealed.
Nonetheless, the push for digital rights has taken on different forms and strategies, including the popular #KeepItOn campaign which is creating greater awareness and pushback against internet shutdowns. In Africa, for as long internet disruptions continue to recur, more strategic responses to them need to be developed particularly as sinister measures such as ambiguous regulations are increasingly taken to control the flow of information and freedom of expression online.
Update: Internet Access in the affected regions of Cameroon was restored in early March 2018.

30Jan

Disruptions To Digital Communications Persist In The Democratic Republic Of Congo

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By Edrine Wanyama |
Internet access and Short Message Services (SMS) were interrupted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) on January 20, 2018 ahead of a peaceful protest march organised by the Catholic Church to compel President Joseph Kabila to step down following the expiry of his final term in office. The country remains caught in a cycle of instability since the postponement of the November 2016 elections to December 2017, and then to April 2018.
The first interruption of digital communications in the vast central African nation occurred in December 2011 in the aftermath of general elections, before the announcement of the election results. The shutdown affected SMS, and lasted 25 days.
In the seven years since then, DR Congo has experienced at least five communication disruptions amidst growing concerns about surveillance of the digital communications of opposition leaders, journalists, and activists.

See: The Evolution of Internet Shutdowns in DR Congo

Affronts to internet access hurt human rights, and undermine political stability and economic growth. According to the new framework for calculating the economic impact of internet shutdowns, DR Congo loses at least USD 1,936,911 per day of an internet disruption.
The regular communication disruptions bring into focus the role of intermediaries in advancing internet freedom in the country. Specifically, telecom companies and other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are being challenged to dissociate themselves from censorship, by declining to effect the government’s orders to cut off communications. Such a move would arguably be in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights which require businesses to proactively address all adverse human rights impacts directly linked to their operations, products or services. However, many telecommunications services providers fear reprimand and termination of their licences for failure to comply with directives from the state to interfere or block digital communications.
Government directives to shut down the internet or interrupt communications are usually issued under the guise of “national security” or “public order”. In a letter ordering network disruptions in August 2017, an official of the national communications regulatory body, the Autorité de Regulation des Postes et Télécommunications du Congo (ARPTC), instructed service providers to take preventative measures to reduce the capacity to transmit “abusive messages.”
Internet penetration in DR Congo remains low at 4.2%, supported by a 55.7% mobile penetration. To-date, there are two primary laws governing the telecommunications sector, both of which were passed in 2002: the Framework Law 013/2002 on Telecommunications, and the Law 14/2002 on the Regulations – the law that established the national regulator. However, rather than advance internet access and usage, these laws have often been used against the media and critics of the state. Meanwhile, there are limited meaningful avenues for citizens to provide inputs to proposed new laws related to the telecommunications industry.
President Kabila’s government should boldly work to stop the abuse of rights which the country’s 2005 constitution guarantees . Abuse of free expression and access to information has continued in Congo despite the recognition of access to the internet as a human right by African and International Human Rights instruments. The UN Secretary General has previously called and continues to call upon the Congolese government to uphold her citizens’ freedoms to speech and peaceful assembly.
It is thus imperative that Congo government authorities desist from interrupting digital communications and guarantee citizens’ access to the internet and to the full enjoyment of their digital rights. Further, the Congo government should recognise the relationship between access to the internet and citizens’ livelihoods and work to grow the number of its citizens that meaningfully access and use digital tools and services.

13Dec

Online Chat On Internet Shutdowns

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Online Chat |
On Friday December 15, 2017, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) will spend some time sharing insights on internet shutdowns. Between 15h00 and 16h00 East African Time (EAT) we will explore the spate of shutdowns affecting Sub-Saharan Africa and the efforts to navigate them.

Have you experienced an internet shutdown? Are you experiencing a shutdown? What work or insights would you like to share around this issue? What is the way forward?

We will also share insights on the economic impact of internet shutdowns with reference to a new framework we developed on calculating the Economic Impact of Internet Disruptions in Sub-Saharan Africa
A few of the documented cases of deliberate interruption of digital communications in sub-Sahara Africa in December thus far include an ongoing shutdown in Anglophone regions of Cameroon which as of today has run for 75 days. An earlier shutdown in the same region lasted 93 days. This week also Ethiopia experienced interruptions to its communications – primarily Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter due to protests in the Oromia region. Further afield, in Yemen, there were reports of some internet filtering, blocking, throttling, and social media shutdowns.
Join the discussion and share your views on how we can #KeepItOn and protect #InternetFreedomAfrica 

12Oct

Using FIFAfrica17 Conversations To Drive Change

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By Martha Chilongoshi |
The Africa I want is one that embraces diversity, promotes freedom of expression, values the right to information and prioritizes the elimination of all forms of discrimination on the basis of gender.
For my ideal Africa to be realized, actions, initiatives and conversations that challenge the status quo and disrupt structural systems which hinder development are very vital and this is what the Forum on Internet Freedom represents for me, an opportunity to meet like-minded people and share ideas as well as experiences on how to advance our societies for the better.
A communication for development professional like me finds great value in the Forum on Internet Freedom gatherings because it presents diverse opportunities for me to learn about the social, economic and political factors affecting internet access and usage in other countries in Africa and how I can apply lessons from there to address and solve prevailing issues in my own country – Zambia.
More importantly, the forum has deepened my knowledge on the role of the internet in the development agenda in that, I have been afforded the opportunity to meet my online community in an offline setting and build a support structure that offers solutions and coping strategies to challenges of internet shutdowns, restrictions on freedom of expression, women’s safety online, privacy and security among other things.
As a gender equality & human rights activist, I particularly enjoyed the session on “Finding equality in an age of discrimination online” with panelists, Emilar Gandhi (Facebook), Daniel Kigonya, (iFreedom Uganda), Caroline Tagny (CAL) and Fungai Machirori (APC). This was an important conversation for me because personally, I have committed to use my skills as a Journalist to create awareness and give prominence to issues that affect women and girls using social media and blogging platforms and in my experience, online spaces have not been spared from the patriarchal structures and attitudes that exist offline
Patriarchy has been defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as;
– a social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan of the family
– the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line
– control by men of a disproportionately large share of power
With this in mind, it is not surprising that online spaces are being used to perpetuate the very inequalities that exist offline and policing how women and girls express themselves online, how they report violations and how they narrate their experiences. This is why the conversation on “Women’s safety online” by panellists, Francoise Mukuku (Si Jeunesse Savait DR Congo), Irene Kiwia (Tanzania Women of Achievement), Emilar Ghandi (Facebook) and Twasiima Patricia (Chapter Four Uganda) was also very key because it addressed the need to ensure women and girls are protected online and users of the Internet adhere to the set community standards and ideals that deter them from perpetuating abuse and discrimination.
I must add that apart from the panel discussions, I really enjoyed the personal conversations I had during tea and lunch breaks, one of my favourite discussions on the sidelines of the Forum was a conversation about feminism and gender equality with Tricia from Uganda and Tracey from Kenya. As the image below will show, we were so invested in the conversation and it was a brilliant, rich and empowering exchange of young women daring to stand up against structures and environments that perpetuate discrimination using online spaces.

Another key take away from these two sessions was the need to empower women and girls with information about their rights through access to the internet so they can recognise when those rights are being threatened or violated by another person. Often, women and girls are socialised and conditioned to think that they cannot make decisions without the approval of their male relations because from time in memorial, the power lies with men and women are constantly subjected to finding ways of not upsetting this hold on power and in effect remaining silent in the face of violence.
There are many progressive developments that online spaces have provided to ordinary people in terms of dealing with equality, freedom of expression and access to information. More people are now able to voice out on issues that affect them in real time and create a critical mass through social movements that have proved to be a force in challenging the powers that be. This has easily been evidenced by internet shutdowns by governments in Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Togo and Gambia among other countries.
This brings me to another conversation I found most intriguing at the forum themed “Privacy & Freedom of Expression” which was wonderfully moderated by Gbenga Sesan of Paradigm Initiative and featured panellists from state institutions namely James Mutandwa Madya (Ministry of ICT Postal and Courier Services Zimbabwe), Micheal Ilishebo (Zambia Police Service), Marian Shinn (MP, Parliament of South Africa) and Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda (Google).
For the last two years, my line of work has involved working on projects that are centred on democracy, good governance and civic participation especially during electoral processes and this particular conversation was key in understanding how state institutions view the internet and its power to connect people for social change. The conversation between the panellists and audience brought one thing to light, many African governments are threatened by the power that the internet gives to ordinary citizens and as a result, opt to shut it down in order to repress social movements that mobilise people towards an issue.
This can be proved by revisiting how the Zimbabwean government dealt with Evan Mawarire, a pastor whose social media movement dubbed #ThisFlag inspired thousands of Zimbabweans online and offline to demand for better conditions of living from their government. He had to flee his country because his family was no longer safe and when he eventually returned, he was immediately arrested and charged with “attempting to overthrow a constitutionally elected government”.
Another prominent case was that of Cameroon where the Internet was shut down for 3 months in the English speaking region of the country by the government. The shutdown caused hundreds of citizens to mobilise and find alternative means of accessing the internet and creating the hashtag #BringBackOurInternet to let the world know of the discrimination and suppression that was happening in Cameroon. Among the prominent Cameroonian voices that demanded for the restoration of the internet was the Forum’s keynote speaker, Rebecca Enonchong, Founder and CEO of Apps Tech who shared her experience on the impact of the internet shutdown on the rights and freedoms of Cameroonians and to a great extent, its impact on the economy.
If I have to sum up my experience at the forum on internet freedom 2017, I will say that it has given me a fresh and dynamic perspective of the internet, it has broadened my knowledge on the many ways I can use the internet as a tool and an enabler for my human rights activism and encourage civic participation in my community. It has also allowed me to see the economic impact that an internet shutdown can have on a country and for me, this is a great angle from which to advocate for an open, neutral and free internet.  I can’t wait for next year’s conversation!


Originally published on the Revolt For Her website
 

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