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Digital Technologies, Politics, and Society Across Africa

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Digital Technologies, Politics, and Society Across Africa A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS EXPLORING THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY ACROSS AFRICA Edited by Nic Cheeseman and Lisa Garbe 04 INTRO: Nic Cheeseman, Lisa Garbe and Idayat Hassan: Why digital democracy will take more than technology in Africa 09 Nanjala Nyabola: Governance and Public Policy in the Digital Age 13 Maggie Dwyer and Thomas Malony: How social media is changing politics in Africa 17 Kofi Yeboah: How AI is transforming Africa’s political landscape 21 Alina Rocha Menocal: Digital technologies and the new public square: revitalising democracy? 27 Gbenga Sesan: How to revive Africa’s lost civic spaces 31 Lisa Garbe: What we do (not) know about internet shutdowns in Africa 36 Julie Owono: Why Silicon Valley needs to be more responsible in Africa 40 Toussaint Nothias: Facebook’s ongoing scramble for Africa 47 Michael Asiedu: The role of the courts in safeguarding online freedoms in Africa CONTENTS 51 Herman Wasserman: Fake news in Africa – how big is the problem? 55 Ashwanee Budoo: How fighting fake news hurts free speech 59 Steven Feldstein: How digital repression is changing African politics 64 Lisa-Marie Selvik: How to ensure digital access to information in Africa 68 Khamis Mutwafi: What Google trends data can tell us about the Tanzanian general election 73 Nic Cheeseman, Jonathan Fisher, Idayat Hassan and Jamie Hitchen: Is WhatsApp undermining democracy in Africa? 77 Bruce Mutsvairo: Why social activists face an uphill struggle in Zimbabwe 81 Idayat Hassan and Jamie Hitchen: How hashtag activism moves offline in the Gambia 85 Azeb Madebo: Social Media, the Diaspora, and the Politics of Ethnicity in Ethiopia 93 Paul Onanuga: How young, queer Nigerians use Twitter to fight homophobia 97 Grace Natabaalo, Lulu Jemimah, Jamie Hitchen and Eloïse Bertrand: Short on strategy: WhatsApp use in the Ugandan elections ABOUT THE EDITORS: Nic Cheeseman is the Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham and the author and editor of more than 10 books on democracy and politics in Africa. He is also the founder and co-editor of Democracy in Africa (DIA), which is dedicated to the study democracy in Africa and to making it easier for those who are already working in, and on, the continent to share ideas and information. Lisa Garbe is a researcher based at the political science institute at the University of St. Gallen. She studies the opportunities and risks of digitalization for democracy in Africa and the specific role that transnational actors play in shaping them. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This compiled collection is the result of a collaboration between DIA and DCSL. The editors would like to thank Toussaint Nothias, Associate Director of Research at DCSL for editorial and production support, and Mahyar.Kazempour for design and layout. The editors would also like to thank all the authors for their contributions. The views expressed in these posts are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Democracy in Africa or the Digital Civil Society Lab. INTRODUCTION 1 WHY DIGITAL DEMOCRACY WILL TAKE MORE THAN TECHNOLOGY IN AFRICA By Nic Cheeseman, Lisa Garbe and Idayat Hassan | October 5, 2020 From the mid-2000s onwards, the digital revolution raised hopes of democratic transformation and strengthening in Africa. But it hasn’t quite turned out like that. Now, almost a decade after the “Arab Spring”, techno-optimism has given way to techno-pessimism. 4 African leaders have proved able to blunt the transformative potential of smart phones through censorship and internet shutdowns. When the internet is on, social media attracts more attention for spreading fake news than preventing election rigging. What was once thought of as “liberation technology” has turned out to be remarkably compatible with the maintenance of the status quo. Or has it? Does this more pessimistic reading overlook genuine progress? This publication edited by Nic Cheeseman and Lisa Garbe draws together the latest research on the extent to which digital technology has changed Africa … and the ways in which Africa is changing digital technology. The articles show that we should not miss the wood for the trees: despite disappointment, digital technology has had profound impacts on African politics and society. But, they also highlight how much more needs to be known about digital technology on the continent. Digital access and inclusion A lot of recent analysis has focused on the digital divide in Africa, and the many people excluded from online access by poverty and lack of coverage. Yet researchers have also found that closing this divide cannot be achieved by cheaper technology alone. Using digital technology to access information and resources is only possible when a set of political, legal, and economic conditions are in place. For example, the content that citizens can access increasingly depends on giant tech companies, especially for poorer citizens. In his contribution on Facebook’s Free Basics ‒ a service that provides basic online services without data charges ‒ Toussaint Nothias explains that tech corporations’ dominant position enables them to shape how individuals use the internet under the pretence of making it more affordable. This raises tough questions about whether multinational companies engage ethically in Africa. As Julie Owono’s contribution points out, Facebook has been accused of “dumping” products such as Free Basics, stymieing the production of local alternatives. This has raised concerns of a fresh “scramble for Africa”, with multinational companies expending more energy and resources in securing new users than tackling hate speech and misinformation. Social media, democracy and accountability From the recent “virtual protest” in Zambia to #ZimbabweanLivesMatter, the potential of social media to empower dissenting voices is clear. Social media is also becoming increasingly important before, during and after African elections. Idayat Hassan and Jamie Hitchen’s analysis of WhatsApp and Facebook use ahead of elections in The Gambia shows that even in rural areas with limited connectivity, 5 social media content contributes to offline political mobilisation. An analysis of political mobilisation during Uganda’s 2021 elections by Grace Natabaalo, Lulu Jemimah, Jamie Hitchen & Eloïse Bertrand shows that politicians also actively use social media groups for campaigning – but that this is often disorganised and so new technology is not always used to maximum effect. Similar limitations have been identified elsewhere. While social media provides important tools for digital activism from marginalised groups, such as for anti-homophobic advocacy in Nigeria, online activism often lacks “leadership, coordination and in some cases identity”. Further challenges are on the horizon. Azeb Madebo reveals how the use of social media by the Ethiopian diaspora has fuelled the polarisation between the Oromo community on the one hand, and the Ethiopian government and Ethiopian nationalists on the other. Not all fake news is believed of course, and it is important to keep in mind that many users are aware that they are being sent disinformation. Indeed, survey data collected by Herman Wassermann and Dani Madrid-Morales in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, shows that African citizens have much lower trust in social media than Americans. When stories play into widely held fears, prejudices and assumptions, however, they can exacerbate distrust and encourage a cycle of violence. It is, therefore, significant that there is relatively little regulation of content moderation. Julie Owono shows that in part this can be attributed to the limited local capacity of content providers such as Facebook or Twitter. Neither has invested heavily in African experts capable of identifying fake news and hate speech circulated on their platforms. In part, it is also rooted in the limited funding available for civil society groups, considerable linguistic diversity, and the volume of information being shared. As a result, organisations such as Africa Check highlight instances of fake news but cannot hope to cover all harmful content. Many questions, few answers Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to the challenge of problematic content because when governments do try and combat free speech, Ashwanee Budoo finds that misinformation is often abused as an excuse to clamp down on freedom of expression. There is also a significant risk, according to Kofi Yeboah, that the spread of Artificial Intelligence will destabilize African politics. These accounts highlight that there is still a lot to learn about the causes and consequences of social media. Fortunately, social media itself provides an opportunity to study political interest, discourse, or participation, as demonstrated by Khamis Mutwafi’s analysis of what Google Trends data tell us about the Tanzanian elections. 6 As Nanjala Nyabola puts it, “the digital is changing the way we do politics and international relations”, with both citizens and governments using social media to shape political discourse. Steven Feldstein predicts that neither side in will gain a decisive advantage, but rather that both sides will continuously adapt their strategies resembling a game of cat-and-mouse. The conclusion that the impact of social media is complex and ever changing is further supported by the contribution by Maggie Dwyer and Thomas Molony, which sets out some of the very different ways in which social media is shaping political engagement in Africa. Free speech, censorship and internet
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