NOW OPEN! FIFAfrica24 Call for Session Proposals and Travel Support Applications

Announcement |

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) invites interested parties to submit session proposals to the 2024 edition of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica24). Successful submissions will help to shape the agenda of the event, which will gather hundreds of policymakers, regulators, human rights defenders, journalists, academics, private sector players, global information intermediaries,…

Ford Foundation Launches First Global South Network to Strengthen the Digital Resilience of Civil Society

Announcement |

With $15 million in seed funding, the Global Network for Social Justice and Digital Resilience supports 10 Global South-led organizations that provide technical support to civil society in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Kyoto, Japan (October 10, 2023) – Today, the Ford Foundation announced the launch of the Global Network for Social Justice and Digital Resilience, a…

Digital Slavery: The Unseen Underbelly of the Gig Economy

By Frank Kisakye |

The book, the DIGITAL CONTINENT rhetorically asks: “Autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and machine learning systems, next-generation search engines, recommendations systems, and online content: how many of these technologies do you
think are ‘made in Africa’?”

With most African countries alienated from the global payment and shipping systems, it is quite easy and almost natural to think that perhaps only a couple of…

Blackouts, Social Media Bans, Digital Surveillance Continue to Rise Across Africa

News update |

Governments are getting increasingly sophisticated in squashing internet rights. But Gambia’s progress gives some hope.

Late in the night of November 30, 2016, citizens of the small West African nation, The Gambia, noticed their internet had gone down. Ordinarily, it might have been considered a technical fault somewhere in the system, but on the eve of a general election under…

How China’s Huawei Technology is Being Used to Censor News Halfway Across The World

News update |

When a staffer at the independent media website Iwacu in the central African state of Burundi tried to visit the outlet online in late October, they received an error message instead. “Hum. Nous ne parvenons pas à trouver ce site;” the site could not be found  – even though the local media regulator had promised to unblock it in February.

A report published in August found…

Face Recognition Is So Toxic, Facebook Is Dumping It

News Update |

Facebook announced it is, for now, shutting down its face recognition program, which created face prints of users and automatically recognized them in uploaded photos. The decision to end the program comes at a time when face recognition technology is receiving push back, criticisms, and legislative bans across the United States, and the globe. Close to 20 U.S. cities, including…

Stalking the messenger: Ending impunity for illegal surveillance

Opinion |

We know that the issues around digital surveillance are complicated. The tech side of the tools used and the means to circumvent them are complicated. Drawing a hard line between what may be acceptable to help ensure our personal security and what pushes our societies into Orwellian territory is also complicated.

As the revelations of the Pegasus Project show us, illegal surveillance…

Garbage Out, Garbage In: How Europe’s E-Waste Problem Is a Burden on Africa

Updates |

ACCRA, GHANA – This story puts the spotlight on the dumping of e-waste, particularly discarded colling appliances by Europe’s e-waste exporters in Africa in contravention of EU’s law and the Basel Convention while port officials in Europe turn a blind eye to the shipment of these discarded appliances.

It shows how several e-waste recycling organizations in Europe, particularly in the United…

WhatsApp asked to pay a whopping $267 million fine for breaking privacy laws

TL;DR

WhatsApp has been slapped with a record fine for breaking privacy and data protection laws in the EU.
It’s the largest ever fine by the Irish regulator.
The messaging platform will appeal the “disproportionate fine.”

 In a record fine doled out to Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp, EU regulators have asked the company to cough up €225 million (~$267 million) for breaking the General Data…

A Call on TECNO to Uphold Users Privacy and Security

Open Letter |

Strengthening the digital security of at-risk groups and organisations amidst growing digital rights attacks in Africa has become increasingly crucial. However, inadequate device security is undermining such efforts.

Investigations by Privacy International have revealed that TECNO – a phone manufacturer with an estimated 47% market share in East Africa and widely used across other regions on the continent – is putting users’ privacy and security…