Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)

The government’s dissemination of critical information on COVID-19 via social media is inaccessible to the majority of Ugandan citizens unable to afford the country’s social media tax imposed in 2018.

CIPESA has made a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association and Assembly outlining concerns over forceful measures used to impose COVID-19 restrictions by African governments.

There is growing concern that information awareness campaign messages about COVID-19 are on platforms and formats that persons with disabilities have limited access to.

States’ efforts to contain the virus must not be used as a cover to usher in a new era of greatly expanded systems of invasive digital surveillance, a number of civil society organisations have stated.

The surge in people’s reliance on technology resulting from measures introduced by African governments to curb rights during the COVID-19 crisis, is being eased by telecoms offering diverse incentives.

The scrutiny of Malawi’s democratic credentials during this year’s Universal Periodic Review process will be impacted by the landmark Constitutional Court ruling nullifying 2019 presidential election.

This statement was originally published on cipesa.org on 21 February 2020. On December 5, 2019, the president of Mali promulgated Law n° 2019-056 on the Suppression of Cybercrime. Although timely and relevant, a number of provisions pose potential threats to privacy and freedom of expression online, especially in view of Mali’s democracy deficits and low […]

Senegal has just introduced a new law to replace the 2008 Personal Data Protection Law which was one of the first data protection laws enacted on the continent.