GENEVA | A planned shutdown of social media in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Sunday evening ahead of the end of President Joseph Kabila’s mandate, coupled with a continuing ban on demonstrations by civil society and the opposition, is deeply alarming, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said Saturday.
“We are especially concerned as Monday…
Jamii Forums Founder, Maxence Melo has been charged with three offences before a court in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The charges are:
1: Management of a domain not registered in Tanzania under Section 79(c) of the Electronic and Postal Communications Act (2010).
2: Obstruction of investigations under Section 22 (2) of the Cyber Crimes Act of 2015 for not complying with an…
By Abdi Latif Dahir|
Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo have ordered telecom companies to block social media networks from Sunday night (Dec. 18), ahead of protests against president Joseph Kabila, the day he is supposed to step down from office.
The block spans content creation and information sharing platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Skype, Viber, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, among others.
The order…
By CIPESA Writer |
The police in Tanzania has detained Maxence Melo, a freedom of expression activist and co-founder of the popular online discussion platform, Jamii Forums. Although no charges have been brought against Melo, who was arrested at 1pm on Tuesday, December 13, his lawyer says the detention is an intimidation tactic on the backdrop of an ongoing case before…
Joint Letter |
President Yahya Jammeh
cc: Gambia Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA)
Gambia Permanent Mission to the United Nations
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
30 November 2016
Your Excellency,
We are writing to urgently request that you ensure the stability and openness of the internet during the forthcoming elections in Gambia on December 1. Elections represent the most critical moment in a democracy, and…
By Tefo Mohapi|
In October 2016, Ethiopia declared a state of emergency which saw it impose certain measures that included telecommunications, media and Internet shutdowns along with travel restrictions on diplomats and a dusk-to-dawn curfew, to name a few of the measures implemented. The state of emergency, effective from 08 October 2016, comes as a result of about five hundred people…
By Mailyn Fidler|
Mailyn Fidler is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. You can follow her @mailynfidler.
At the first session of the 2016 Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa, questions about cross-border data access—usually a dry topic—took center stage. The moderator and participants grilled representatives from Google and Facebook about the fairness of limited…
By Jean-Pierre Afadhali|
IN SUMMARY
Shutting down the Internet, blocking websites and expunging online content are among the tactics governments in Africa are using to stifle citizens’ voices, even as online platforms increasingly become the go-to places to denounce bad governance.
Shutting down the Internet, blocking websites and expunging online content are among the tactics governments in Africa are using to stifle citizens’ voices,…
By Endalk|
All mobile internet services have been shut down in Ethiopia for the last seven days, amid increasingly violent protest scenes and a recently declared a “state of emergency”.
Demonstrations have taken place with regular frequency in Ethiopia’s Oromia region since November 2015, with protesters demanding greater self-rule, freedom and respect for the ethnic identity of the Oromo people, who have experienced systematic marginalization and persecution…
By Blaise Ndola|
Through presentations and interventions at the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2016 (FIFAfrica16),I learned about different ways Africans countries are stifling citizens’ digital rights. But the most important at this level is that through these presentations and experiences shared, I realized that the battle for Internet freedoms is as important as ever because internet shutdowns, abuses of…