Update |
Every year, the event brings together activists, innovators, and decision-makers to explore how Bitcoin safeguards fundamental freedoms, strengthens economic autonomy, and paves the way for lasting sovereignty. The event is taking place between December 3-5, 2025, at Caudan Arts Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius.
Click here for information on the event.
Event |
The AU-NEPAD and GIZ in collaboration with CIPESA are pleased to convene this three-day capacity-building and stakeholder engagement workshop to support the Government of Uganda in its data governance journey.
The three-day workshop will focus on providing insights into data governance and the transformative potential of data to drive equitable socio-economic development, empower citizens, safeguard collective interests, and protect digital rights in Uganda. This will include aspects on foundational infrastructure, data value creation and markets, legitimate and trustworthy data systems, data standards and categorisation, and data governance mechanisms.
Participants will critically evaluate regulatory approaches, institutional frameworks, and capacity-building strategies necessary to harnessing the power of data for socio-economic transformation and regional integration, in line with the African Union Data Policy Framework.
The workshop will take place from November 19th to 21st, 2025.
ADRF Impact Series |
As Africa’s digital ecosystems expand, so too do the threats to its democratic spaces. From deepfakes to synthetic media and AI-generated misinformation, electoral processes are increasingly vulnerable to technologically sophisticated manipulation. Against this backdrop, THRAETS, a civic-tech pro-democracy organisation, implemented the Africa Digital Rights Fund (ADRF)-supported project, “Safeguarding African Elections – Mitigating the Risk of AI-Generated Mis/Disinformation to Preserve Democracy.”
The initiative aimed to build digital resilience by equipping citizens, media practitioners, and civic actors with the knowledge and tools to detect and counter disinformation with a focus on that driven by artificial intelligence (AI) during elections across Africa.
At the heart of the project was a multi-pronged strategy to create sustainable solutions, built around three core pillars: public awareness, civic-tech innovation, and community engagement.
The project resulted in innovative civic-tech tools, each of which has the potential to address a unique facets of AI misinformation. These tools include the Spot the Fakes which is a gamified, interactive quiz that trains users to differentiate between authentic and manipulated content. Designed for accessibility, it became a key entry point for public digital literacy, particularly among youth. Additionally, the foundation for an open-source AI tracking hub was also developed. The “Expose the AI” portal will offer free educational resources to help citizens evaluate digital content and understand the mechanics of generative AI.
A third tool, called “Community Fakes” which is a dynamic crowdsourcing platform for cataloguing and analysing AI-altered media, combined human intelligence and machine learning. Its goal is to support journalists, researchers, and fact-checkers in documenting regional AI disinformation. The inclusion of an API enables external organisations to access verified datasets which is a unique contribution to the study of AI and misinformation in the Global South. However, THRAETS notes that the effectiveness of public-facing tools such as Spot the Fakes and Community Fakes is limited by the wider digital literacy gaps in Africa.
Meanwhile, to demonstrate how disinformation intersects with politics and public discourse, THRAETS documented case studies that contextualised digital manipulation in real time. A standout example is the “Ruto Lies: A Digital Chronicle of Public Discontent”, which analysed over 5,000 tweets related to Kenya’s #RejectTheFinanceBill protests of 2024. The project revealed patterns in coordinated online narratives and disinformation tactics, achieving more than 100,000 impressions. This initiative provided a data-driven foundation for understanding digital mobilisation, narrative distortion, and civic resistance in the age of algorithmic influence.
THRAETS went beyond these tools and embarked upon a capacity building drive through which journalists, technologists, and civic leaders were trained in open-source intelligence (OSINT), fact-checking, and digital security.
In October 2024, Thraets partnered with eLab Research to conduct an intensive online training program for 10 Tunisian journalists ahead of their national elections. The sessions focused on equipping the participants with tools to identify and counter-tactics used to sway public opinion, such as detecting cheap fakes and deepfakes. Journalists were provided with hands-on experience through an engaging fake content identification quiz/game. The training provided journalists with the tools to identify and combat these threats, and this helped them prepare for election coverage, but also equipped them to protect democratic processes and maintain public trust in the long run.
This training served as a framework for a training that would take place in August 2025 as part of the Democracy Fellowship, a program funded by USAID and implemented by the African Institute for Investigative Journalism (AIIJ). This training aimed to enhance media capacity to leverage OSINT tools in their reporting.
The THRAETS project enhanced regional collaboration and strengthened local investigative capacity to expose and counter AI-driven manipulation. This project demonstrates the vital role of civic-tech innovation that integrates participation and informed design. As numerous African countries navigate elections, initiatives like THRAETS provide a roadmap for how digital tools can safeguard truth, participation, and democracy.
Find the full project insights report here.
Juliet Nanfuka |
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:
This commentary was first published on the T20 website on October 06, 2025.
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:
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.