WSIS+20 Consultation Meeting: Bingwa Civic Tech Lab’s Call for Global Digital Justice

In half a decade towards the year of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, there are still inequalities in the ways different parts of the world are addressing global digital challenges.
In a decade where most conversations in digital spaces are around Artificial Intelligence, Data, Cyber Security, etc., some parts of the African continent are still facing issues related to a lack of adequate IT infrastructure and digital literacy, leaving millions of young people, women, and people with disabilities disconnected from the rest of the world.

Now more than ever, stakeholders need to put in place frameworks that will contribute to making the future of digital technologies more “human-centric.” It is not just about “catching up with the trend,” because the future does not wait, and neither should we.

Twenty years after the conclusion of the World Summit on the Information Society, to ensure a continual multi-stakeholder approach in the Internet Governance processes, this is probably another opportunity to connect and build synergy between the existing global digital frameworks—especially the Global Digital Compact—through a multi-stakeholder and bottom-up approach for the well-being of our communities.

Without duplicating global digital frameworks, the current consultations in the WSIS+20 review process are a “golden ticket” to develop a clear vision of existing frameworks of action lines, and to identify emerging trends, challenges, and priorities for the coming decades without rendering existing frameworks obsolete.

A Now-or-Never Moment for Global Digital Justice

Imagine yourself in the shoes of a poet, singer, writer, or artist whose work, five years later, is flagged as “100% AI GENERATED.” This is not funny at all, and it shows an urgent need to ensure accountability, community ownership of data, and responsibility of Artificial Intelligence companies within the entire data value chain.

This is where digital justice comes in and implies that stakeholders should ensure marginalized communities retain ownership of their data.

Considering that AI can be a tool Civic Tech enterprises leverage to enhance knowledge, improve educational systems, or design tech tools to improve the well-being of communities, we call upon true “Open AI” models, not just by name. The AI of our dreams should not be limited to “capped-profit” models or reduced to publishing a few research papers; it should embrace the traditional sense of open-source software.

Beyond openness, ownership of data by communities, and accountability of AI companies in the data value chain, Bingwa Civic Tech Lab urged that the WSIS+20 conclusions embody the aspirations of a whole generation for a responsible, ethical, and human-centric digital future, as part of a WSIS Regional consultative workshop that happened on May 28, 2025 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

This article was first published on Bingwa Civic Tech Lab on May 28, 2025

DRAA Condemns Tanzania’s Restriction of X Platform, Urges Restoration of Access

Press Release |

The Digital Rights Alliance Africa (DRAA) strongly denounces the ongoing restriction of access to X (formerly Twitter) in Tanzania, a move that undermines fundamental freedoms and erodes the democratic foundations of open societies. As the country approaches a critical electoral period, shutting down digital communication platforms not only silences public discourse but also limits civic participation and disrupts livelihoods.

Read our full statement.

#KeepItOn #InternetFreedom #DigitalRightsAfrica #TanzaniaShutdown #DRAA

CIPESA Features the Content Moderation Dilemma at DRIF 25

By Edrine Wanyama |

At the 2025 Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF) recently held in Lusaka, Zambia, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) hosted a session examining content moderation and tech accountability from a global South perspective.

While recognising the role of platforms in shaping public discourse, the session also noted their role in spreading disinformation and amplifying hate speech. In this regard, panelists raised critical concerns around transparency, bias in algorithms, and inadequate reflection of local languages and contexts, emphasising the obligations of tech companies, the rights of users, and the responsibility of governments and civil society in ensuring accountability while safeguarding free expression online.

Gaps in content moderation by platforms have often been the basis for governments to develop overly broad and regressive laws, expand influence over social media, and to weaponise some of the emerging information disorder threats like hate speech and disinformation.

In January 2025, Meta announced the termination of independent fact-checkers in the United States of America and replaced them with user-driven “community notes”. Although the announcement does not mention Africa, its impact is bound to reach the continent. Meta’s decision is especially troubling for Africa, given its vast linguistic and cultural diversity, low levels of digital and media literacy, rising challenges such as hate speech and election-related disinformation, the absence of context-specific content moderation policies, and insufficient investment in local fact-checking efforts.

According to Hlengiwe Dube,  a Program Manager: Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit at the Centre for Human Rights – University of Pretoria, “The data on content moderation in African countries reveals that content moderation practices often fail to consider local contexts, languages, and the socio-political environment. There is a growing call for reforms that prioritise local expertise, linguistic diversity, and human rights in the development and implementation of content moderation policies.”

Commenting on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), algorithmic transparency and accountability in automated moderation systems, Dube further noted that “When AI-driven content moderation only partially considers Africa’s languages, contexts, and conflicts, it risks doing more harm than good. True tech accountability requires systems co-created with local expertise and grounded in human rights, transparency, and justice.”

Patricia Ainembabzi, Policy and Advocacy Officer at CIPESA, reiterated the leverage the continent has in the tech ecosystem, “Africa remains a key market for global tech companies. This influence must be used to demand alignment with regional frameworks like the recently adopted African Commission’s Resolution 630 (LXXXII) 2025 on developing guidelines to assist States monitor technology companies in respect of their duty to maintain information integrity through independent fact checking, which calls for stronger oversight and accountability of platforms.”

This call was also emphasised by Angella Minayo, Programs Officer on Digital Rights and Policy at ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa, who stressed the need for robust frameworks on business and human rights obligations for tech companies, adding that, “these frameworks will clarify the corporate human rights obligations such as human rights due diligence, human rights risk mitigation and access to remedy for human rights violations.”

Key recommendations that emerged from the session include:

  1. Governments should develop clear and comprehensive laws and amend or repeal progressive provisions to facilitate protection of rights, promote transparency and accountability and awareness raising programmes on responsible application and use of online content.
  2. Tech companies need to have more African language content, context-specific risk indicators, and regional experts involved in both dataset curation and annotation for a multilingual and culturally competent AI.
  3. Tech companies should provide access to more granular, disaggregated data, including information on content removals, appeals, and reinstatements.
  4. Tech companies should engage in pre-deployment audits of AI moderation systems especially in high-risk markets like politically unstable regions. These should evaluate whether an algorithm poses risks to human rights such as freedom of expression and other civil and political rights, and the rights of minority groups.
  5. Civil society, academics, and user communities should take active part in co-designing platform policies, testing moderation tools, flagging failures and building capacity of citizens.
  6. Tech companies should in addition to voluntary commitments develop binding frameworks through regional bodies like the African Union and other international mechanisms. The frameworks should be anchored on the principle of algorithmic fairness and explainability as rights-based obligations.

The Digital Rights Alliance Africa

As individuals increasingly exercise their rights online, threats to digital civic space have been on the rise across Africa. In the past three years, at least fifteen countries have introduced or enacted legislation restricting civic freedoms online. Tactics include digital surveillance, limited or cutoff internet access, disinformation, and hate speech. To effectively overcome these challenges requires a combination of tech, legal, and civic space advocacy expertise.

To build civil society’s capacity to push back against rising digital authoritarianism, ICNL and its partner— Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)— helped create Digital Rights Alliance Africa. The Alliance brings together civil society organizations (CSOs), lawyers, human rights defenders, and tech experts from across the continent. Together, they work to champion digital civic space and counter threats to digital rights.

ICNL and CIPESA began collaborating on the intersection of digital tech and civic space in 2020. Together, we enhanced the tech and legal capacity of leading CSOs from over a dozen African countries. We also facilitated research on digital legal frameworks and fostered regional networking to encourage knowledge sharing among partners and their networks.

This multi-year initiative culminated in the Digital Rights Alliance Africa launch in September 2023. In the Alliances’s outcome statement, members committed to collaborate to promote enabling legal frameworks for digital rights, push back against restrictions, and enhance civil society’s ability to exercise their rights online. ICNL will continue to support the Alliance and its members to shape digital civic space in Africa.

Our Mission

To foster a collaborative and inclusive digital environment across Africa by empowering civil society organizations, promoting digital rights, and advocating for policies that uphold internet freedom, equity, and access for all.

Our Vision

An Africa where every individual can safely and freely access the internet, exercise their digital rights, and participate in an inclusive and open digital ecosystem.

The Surveillance Footprint in Africa Threatens Privacy and Data Protection

By Edrine Wanyama 

Digital and physical surveillance by states, private companies that develop technology or supply governments and unscrupulous individuals globally and across Africa is a major threat to the digital civic space and operations of civil society organisations (CSOs), human rights defenders (HRDs), activists, political opposition, government critics and the media. The highly intrusive technology, which is often facilitated by biometric data collection systems such as for processing of national identification documents, voter cards, travel documents, mandatory SIM card registration and the installation of CCTV cameras for “smart cities”, adversely impacts the digital civic space. 

Given these developments, the Digital Rights Alliance Africa (DRAA), a network of CSOs, media, lawyers and tech specialists from across Africa that seeks to champion digital civic space and counter threats to digital rights on the continent, recently held a learning session on “Understanding Surveillance Trends, Threats and Challenges for Civil Society.” The Alliance was created by the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) and the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) in response to rising digital authoritarianism. It currently has members from more than 12 countries, who collectively conduct research and advocacy and share experiences around navigating digital threats and influencing strategic digital policy reforms in line with the alliance’s outcome declaration. 

The virtual learning session built capacity among the Alliance members to better understand digital surveillance and the related threats facing democracy actors. Discussions delved into the nature of surveillance, the regulatory environment, and strategies to navigate and counter surveillance risks and threats. The threats and risks include harassment, arbitrary arrests, persecution and prosecution on trumped up charges. 

While emphasising the need to understand emerging surveillance technologies, ecosystem and deployment tactics, Richard Ngamita, the Team Leader at Thraets, highlighted the huge investment (estimated at USD 1 billion annually) which African governments have made in acquiring surveillance technologies from China, Israel, the United States of America and Europe. Ngamita urged CSOs, HRDs and other actors to build digital security capacity to protect against illegal surveillance.

Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, the Executive Director of Spaces for Change, while referencing the  Proliferation of Dual-Use Surveillance Technologies in Nigeria: Deployment, Risks & Accountability – Spaces for Change report, highlighted weak regulation and unaccountable practices by states that facilitate unlawful surveillance across the continent and their implications on rights. According to the report,

“The greatest concern around surveillance technologies is their potential misuse for political repression and human rights abuses. Surveillance practices also undermine the citizens’ dignity, autonomy, and security, translating to significant reductions in citizens’ agency. Agency reductions are magnified by the state’s power to punish dissent. This creates a chilling effect as citizens self-censor or avoid public engagement for fear of being surveilled or punished. The citizens have little agency to challenge or resist the state’s surveillance because of low digital literacy, poverty and broader limitations in access to justice.”

Michaela Shapiro, the Global Engagement and Advocacy Officer at Article 19, United Kingdom, discussed the governing norms of surveillance globally while paying particular attention to the common gaps that need policy action at the country level in Africa. Recalling the intensification of digital and physical surveillance as part of state responses to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the absence of clear oversight mechanisms, Michaela emphasised the role of CSOs in advocating for data and privacy protection. 

To-date, the leading instrument of data protection on the continent, the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection has only 16 ratifications out of 55 states, while only 36 states have enacted specific laws on privacy and data protection rights.

Surveillance in Africa generally poses a major threat to individuals’ data and privacy rights since governments exercise wide access over the data subjects’ rights. National security and the loopholes in the laws are usually exploited to abuse and violate data rights. While there are regional and international standards, these are often overlooked with governments taking measures that are not provided for by the law, rendering them unlawful, arbitrary and disproportionate under human rights law. 

By way of progressive actions, speakers noted and made recommendations to States and non-state actors to the effect that:

States and Governments 

  • Address surveillance and bolster personal data and privacy protections through adopting robust legal and regulatory frameworks and repealing restrictive digital laws and policies.
  • Promote and enhance transparency and accountability through the establishment of independent surveillance oversight boards.
  • Strictly regulate the use of surveillance technologies by law enforcement and intelligence agencies to ensure accountability.
  • Collaborate with other countries to develop harmonised privacy standards within the established regional and international standards to have settled positions on cross-border controls on surveillance.

Civil Society Organisations

  • Build and enhance capacities of HRDs and other players in data governance and accountability to equip them with knowledge to counter common data privacy threats by governments and corporate entities.
  • Push for ethical and responsible use of technology to prevent and minimise technology-related violations. 
  • Challenge all forms of unlawful use of surveillance practices through legal action by, among others, taking legal actions.

Tech Sector

  • Conduct regular audits and impact assessments to address potential privacy breaches and enhance accountability and transparency. 
  • Prioritise privacy and integrate privacy protections into their products and services including data collection minimisation and establish strong security measures for privacy.
  • Prioritise ethical considerations in the development and deployment of new technologies to guarantee strong protections against potential violations.

Digital Rights Alliance Africa Condemns Social Media Shutdown in South Sudan

Social Media Shutdown in South Sudan Will Aggravate Human Rights Violations

The Digital Rights Alliance Africa (DRAA) – a network of non-government organisations that champions the digital civic space and counters threats to digital rights on the continent – is deeply concerned by the recent shutdown of social media platforms by the South Sudan government. The government claims the disruption is aimed to curb the dissemination of graphic content that portrays violence against South Sudanese nationals in neighbouring Sudan, and will last three months. 

The measure is a response to escalating violence and protests across the country arising from the killing of South Sudanese nationals by the Sudanese armed forces in Sudan’s El Gezira state. In response, nationals of South Sudan staged riots during which at least 16 Sudanese citizens were killed. 

The shutdown will aggravate an already precarious human rights situation, undermine the ability of citizens to document the crimes being committed, and deny the public  access to information that is vital to making decisions in life-and-death situations – such as how to access essential services like healthcare or routes to safety away how from the conflict zones.

Moreover, fundamental rights and freedoms, including freedom of expression, access to information, and peaceful assembly and association, will be undermined. Social media platforms and digital spaces are critical to fostering transparency, dialogue, and trust in times of crisis. Shutting down these spaces creates an information vacuum that breeds disinformation, which not only deepens societal divisions but also undermines efforts toward restoring peace and the rule of law.

According to article 24 of the Transitional Constitution of South Sudan,
  1. Every citizen shall have the right to the freedom of expression, reception and dissemination of information, publication, and access to the press without prejudice to public order, safety or morals as prescribed by law.

           (2) All levels of government shall guarantee the freedom of the press and other media as shall    

                         be regulated by law in a democratic society.

The constitution further guarantees freedom of assembly and association in article 25 and access to information under article 32.

Having acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, South Sudan has an obligation to respect and promote fundamental human rights and freedoms including expression and access to information, assembly and association.

Shutting down social media restricts vital communication, suppresses civic engagement, and hinders citizens’ ability to participate in democratic processes. The shutdown is contrary to the established international human rights standards which require that such restrictions on citizens’ rights must only be implemented where they meet the three part test of (i) being provided for by law; (ii) serving a legitimate aim and (iii) being necessary and proportionate in a free and democratic society. Imposing a shutdown on social media constitutes a disproportionate measure that instead restricts free access to information online – a critical mode of communication in periods of instability.

The decision to curtail access to social media platforms is a dent to South Sudan’s commitment to regional and international laws and undermines the realisation of civil liberties in the online spaces for the people of South Sudan. Specifically, it violates the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa 2019 which, among others, recognises the importance of internet access. It also goes against the recent 2024 Resolution on Internet Shutdowns and Elections in Africa, which emphasises that states should not interfere with the right of individuals to seek, receive and impart information through any means of communication and digital technologies, and should avoid interrupting access to the internet and other digital technologies.

DRAA calls upon the South Sudan government to:
  1. Immediately lift the social media ban and restore access to social media platforms to ensure  free expression and access to critical information by the citizens.
  2. Respect human and peoples’ rights, including digital rights, in accordance with regional and international instruments, which protect the rights of the people of South Sudan  to communicate, assemble and associate.  
  3. Address the root causes of the current unrest and engage in meaningful and transparent dialogue with community leaders, civil society organisations, and affected communities to address underlying grievances and promote reconciliation to build an accountable, peaceful and inclusive society.
  4. Protect all affected communities and take urgent and necessary steps to safeguard vulnerable groups, including Sudanese traders and other minorities, ensuring their safety and dignity are preserved.
  5. Refrain from actions of ordering internet service providers to shut down the internet, to disrupt internet connections  to ensure constant free expression,  open flow of information and the holding of the perpetrators of human rights violations accountable.

DRAA urges the African Union, regional bodies, and the international community to hold South Sudan accountable for these repressive measures. We also continue to stand in solidarity with the people of South Sudan and reaffirm our commitment to advocating for digital rights and freedoms across Africa. 

Signed by CIPESA in collaboration with the Digital Rights Alliance Africa (DRAA). 

About Digital Rights Alliance Africa (DRAA) 

The Digital Rights Alliance Africa is a network of traditional NGOs, media, lawyers and tech specialists from across Africa that seeks to champion digital civic space and counter threats to digital rights on the continent. The Alliance was created by the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) and the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) in response to the rising digital authoritarianism in the region. It currently has members from 11 countries, who collectively monitor, engage in research, advocacy, share strategies for navigating digital threats and promote digital policy reforms in line with their shared vision outlined in the outcome declaration endorsed in 2023.

For more information about DRAA’s work and digital rights advocacy in Africa, visit their website or read the full statement.

Digital Rights Hub of African Civil Society Organisations

By Edrine Wanyama |

Since 2016, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has been partnering with the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) to improve African digital civic spaces. 

At the September  Forum on internet Freedoms in Africa, CIPESA and ICNL convened a digital rights hub in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania aimed at promoting the digital civic space in Africa. The hub brought together civil society organisations (CSOs) representatives from 10 African countries. 

Across the continent, there is increased demand for democratic rule yet civic spaces continue to be undermined by state autocracy which still prevails in at least half the continent.  Rights and freedoms such as assembly, association, access to information and data privacy in the online space continue to be curtailed. This is despite that 2016  UN Human Rights Council Resolution  that called for the protection of rights afforded offline, to be applied in equal measure online.

The hub  held discussions on the relationship between digital civic space and its importance to CSOs and the internet infrastructure governance. 

Further insights were drawn from developments on artificial intelligence, surveillance, privacy rights, network disruptions, online content moderation, and the burgeoning concerns on disinformation and its impact on the digital society. 

The hub concluded by defining the  role of CSOs in protecting the digital civic space through effective advocacy strategies such as litigation, legal analysis and the law making process, capacity building of key stakeholders including parliamentarians and making use of regional human rights monitoring mechanisms such as the United Nations Human Rights Council mechanisms like Universal Periodic Review and Special Rapporteurs and the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights monitoring mechanisms were enumerated.  

The emerging statement from the convening can be accessed here

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