What happened with digital rights in Africa in Q1 2021?
It was business as usual
‘’Human rights protected offline should also be protected online’’
This was the resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) — the resolution on “the promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet” at the 38th Session of the Human Rights Council of July 2018 which affirmed what we all held sacrosanct — that digital rights are human rights.
Internet and digital access have deepened across Africa in the past 20 years, in the process ushering in new vistas of human development. An important dimension of this development has been the expansion of new media, where new technologies such as social media have given voices to the hitherto voiceless and amplifying once stifled perspectives.
Given that the tight control many authoritarian regimes on the continent exercised relied on having a tight grip on public discourse, the Internet and the new media it spawned soon ran into cross hairs with governments from Cairo to Cape Town. Africa has one of the most censored digital environments in the world.
Pushing back against this censorship is a community of digital rights defenders. A basic, yet important tool in their efforts to promote media freedom is documentation. In the aid of digital rights defenders everywhere, here’s a summary of some of the most important developments in digital rights in Africa in Q1 2021.
Internet shutdowns and website blocks
Sage-like, I had written presciently in the first week of January that it was not a matter of if, rather when Internet shutdowns will occur in 2021. Like clockwork, the first Internet shutdown happened shortly later in Uganda on January 13 on the eve of Presidential elections which saw young activist Robert Kyagulanyi (aka Bobi Wine) challenge Yoweri Museveni, the Ugandan President. The Internet shutdown was ordered by the government in retaliation for Facebook’s move to block a number of pro-government accounts.
On November 4 2020, the Ethiopian government cut off telephone and Internet service in the northern region of Tigray at the commencement of military offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The restrictions on telephone and Internet service persisted into 2021. Curiously, numerous Twitter accounts were created elsewhere in the country in the following days to fill the information vacuum created in the Tigray region.
Following opposition protests after run-off elections in Niger on February 21, mobile Internet service providers disrupted service. The election was won by Mohamed Bazoum, a former Interior Minister and candidate of the ruling party in the first democratic transition in the country.
On March 5, Facebook, YouTube, and Whatsapp were restricted on the Orange/Sonatel network in Senegal following protests against the arrest of opposition politician Ousmane Sonko of the Pastef party. Ousmane Sonko had been earlier accused of rape — an allegation he claimed was politically motivated.
On Election day March 21, there was a disruption to Internet connectivity in Congo. The election, won by incumbent President Dennis Sassou Nguesso who was seeking his fourth term in office, was marked by low voter turn-out. The major opponent to the incumbent Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas died of Covid-19 on election day, after being flown out to France for medical attention.
In January, People’s Gazette, a critical website in Nigeria, was blocked ostensibly from orders from the Nigerian government following an investigative report about senior officials of the President.
Legal and Policy developments
In Kenya, the Finance Act of 2019 empowered the Kenya Revenue Authority to announce a Digital Services Tax in 2020. The tax came into effect on January 1 2021. The tax is 1.5% of the total value of business services rendered through online platforms and is expected to hinder the development of online businesses.
Also in Kenya, the Statute Law Miscellaneous Amendment Act, an amendment to the Official Secrets Act, was signed on December 11 2020. According to AccessNow, it gives sweeping powers to the Cabinet Secretary of Interior and Coordination of National Security to access data from any phone or computer.
In a landmark judgment in favour of privacy in February, South Africa’s Constitutional Court declared the bulk interception of communications by the country’s spy agencies unlawful. The case was based on evidence that the state spied on investigative journalist Stephen Patrick Sole of amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism while communicating with a source. The applicants including amaBhungane Centre argued that the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act of 2002 (RICA) and the National Strategic Intelligence Act 39 of 1994 (NSIA) violate the right to privacy.
In Uganda, the Tax Amendment Bills, 2021 is before Parliament for debate. If passed into law, will take effect from 1st July 2021. Among its goals are repealing the top services (OTT) tax (reducing the rate of over the top tax from 20% to 12%) and introducing a new tax on internet data.
Zambia enacted a Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Act which gives sweeping powers to the government to exercise greater control over social media and conduct communications surveillance without a court order. The Law has been quickly challenged in the High Court of Zambia by a coalition of civil society organizations who are praying the court to declare the law unconstitutional.
Arrests and detentions
In Zimbabwe Devine Panashe Maregere and his wife Vongai Nomatter Chiminya were both arrested in January for sending a message on WhatsApp claiming that President Emmerson Mnangagwa had died of Covid-19. They were charged at Beitbridge magistrate court with publishing or communicating falsehoods.
On February 9 2021 Innocent Bahati, a poet and singer was reported missing. He was last seen a few prior in Nyanza, Southern Province. Innocent’s poems, which he recited in videos posted on YouTube, focused on issues such as poverty or criticism of the government, for which he had once been detained.
Countering Business as usual in Q2 2021
Why digital rights violations persist in the most brazen forms such as Internet shutdowns and clampdowns on freedom of expression in Africa has roots in the broader dysfunctional state of politics and society in general on the continent. We can only improve human rights standards when there has been a more fundamental change in the way our societies are run — which will include key institutional reforms in electoral democracy and economic justice. It is a campaign we’ve commenced in Q1 2021 and will gladly continue in Q2 2021.
