By Raylenne Kambua |
Digital platforms have become central to how millions of Africans access news, organise politically, run businesses, and participate in public life. Yet the companies that operate these platforms make far-reaching decisions about what people see online, whose voices are amplified, and how public debate unfolds, often with limited accountability to the communities they affect.
As platforms increasingly rely on artificial intelligence and automated systems to recommend, rank, and moderate content, questions about transparency, oversight, and responsibility have become more urgent.
Governments across Africa are beginning to answer the question of who governs the platforms in different ways. CIPESA’s latest policy brief, Platform Governance in Africa: Emerging Models and Policy Priorities, examines how Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda have confronted platform power, what their experiences reveal about the limits of national regulation, and why regional cooperation is becoming increasingly important.
Three Countries, Three Approaches
Nigeria has shown that African regulators can build credible cases and prevail in court. Following a joint investigation by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, Meta was found to have appropriated Nigerian users’ data without consent, abused its dominant market position, and treated Nigerian consumers less favourably than users elsewhere. In July 2024, regulators imposed a USD 220 million fine, which was later upheld on appeal.
Yet the case also illustrates the limits of enforcement. When the payment deadline expired in June 2025, neither Meta nor the regulator had publicly confirmed whether the fine had been paid. Nigeria demonstrated that regulators can win legal battles. Whether those victories translate into lasting changes in platform behaviour remains an open question.
South Africa has taken a different approach. Rather than relying primarily on financial penalties, the Competition Commission’s Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry sought to address how dominant platforms affect the sustainability of local journalism. The inquiry secured binding commitments from Google, Meta, TikTok, and Microsoft, including a ZAR 688 million (USD 41.6 million) media support package from Google. It represents one of Africa’s most ambitious efforts to address platform power through competition oversight, although its long-term impact will depend on sustained political commitment and regulatory capacity.
Uganda’s experience offers a different lesson. A government-ordered restriction on Facebook, imposed in January 2021 after Meta removed accounts linked to government-affiliated influence operations, has now lasted more than five years. The costs have largely been borne by Ugandan users and businesses, highlighting the wider social and economic consequences of unresolved disputes between governments and global platforms.
The Limits of Acting Alone
These cases highlight a central challenge of platform governance in Africa: legal authority does not always translate into practical leverage over global technology companies. Also, it is apparent that market size matters. Nigeria and South Africa, as two of Africa’s largest digital markets, secured stronger responses from platforms than Uganda did. Most African economies are considerably smaller than Meta’s annual profits, limiting the pressure individual governments can exert on multinational companies.
This reality is driving growing interest in regional approaches. The ongoing investigation by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Competition Commission into Meta’s practices across 21 member states reflects a shift towards collective oversight of platform power. By acting together, governments have greater potential to address competition, data governance, and digital market concerns than they do individually.
Why Platform Governance Matters
Platform governance is often discussed in terms of regulation and competition, yet users ultimately experience its consequences. During the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, platforms struggled to moderate harmful content in Tigrinya and Amharic. In one widely documented case, Facebook posts targeting university professor Meareg Amare remained online for days after being reported and were removed only after he had been killed.
Across Africa, women journalists, politicians, and activists continue to face technology-facilitated gender-based violence that platform governance systems have struggled to address effectively. These failures can discourage participation in public life and narrow the diversity of voices represented online.
Meanwhile, coordinated disinformation campaigns continue to spread faster than moderation and fact-checking systems can respond. A 2025 analysis in Kenya documented a coordinated campaign that generated more than 150,000 views in less than two weeks, illustrating how quickly harmful narratives can circulate before effective interventions are possible.
What Needs to Change
The policy brief argues that platform governance in Africa must extend beyond content moderation to broader questions of accountability, competition, data governance, and algorithmic transparency. Addressing these challenges will require governments to pursue rights-respecting regulation, regulators to strengthen oversight of platform systems, regional bodies to deepen cooperation, and platforms to provide greater transparency about how automated systems shape online experiences.
Platform governance in Africa is no longer only about removing harmful content. It is about who controls the infrastructure of public communication, on what terms, and with what accountability to the people who depend on it.
The experiences of Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda show that African governments are increasingly willing to confront platform power. They also demonstrate that no African country can do so effectively in isolation. Building a more accountable digital future will require stronger institutions, deeper regional cooperation, and platforms that are genuinely responsive to the societies they serve.
To explore the evidence, country case studies, and policy recommendations in greater detail, read CIPESA’s full policy brief, Platform Governance in Africa: Emerging Models and Policy Priorities.