[kictanet] Africa: Increasing internet Shutdowns and media bans limiting access to information

[Patrick A. M. Maina]

 I think the best way to protect internet freedoms is to take a balanced human-centric approach and find solutions that mitigate against the wilful abuse of the internet (fake news / hate mongering / fake alarms) in order to avoid endangering people and/or causing unnecessary economic losses. 
I think it is fairly reasonable to have an well thought out institutional and technical framework (developed with *citizen* stakeholder participation) that makes all internet publications within an African country's jurisdiction traceable to specific natural persons - provided certain legal pre-conditions have been met. 
That means dispensing away with the utopian myth that internet freedom means 100% anonymity (or 100% unaccountability) and placing more reliance on citizen mandated institutional protections, to safeguard against abuses e.g of privacy. 
An analogy would be the privacy veil you get with mobile providers or banks.. it is not absolute and can be bypassed with a court order. Why should the internet be any different? When free speech is done maliciously with clear intent to cause harm to others physically or economically - is it acceptable that the perpetrator remain anonymous? 
The narrow, one-dimensional viewpoint taken by some of these internet freedoms NGOs is suspect imo. If a state actor (allegedly "Russia") could destabilize one of the most technologically advanced countries (the US), think of what any tech savvy country in the world could do in Africa given Africa's limited cyber capability. We can't secure devices e.g. routers / firewalls at chip level and neither do we have total control of component-level supply chain, for example... 
At policy level the push should be for strengthening Africa's indigenous cyber-defense capabilities so that internet freedoms can be enjoyed without compromising democracy, constitutional rights, other freedoms or the economy. As far as I am aware (I could be wrong) African leaders are yet to prioritize cyber-defense; so I would assume that most (if not all) countries in Africa are completely vulnerable and exposed in terms of high-budget / state sponsored tech subversion. 

Until the real problem is solved, the only apparent solution in cyber-deficient countries will be blanket shutdowns (a crude approach that I don't personally support or agree with, as it has indiscriminate effects and is highly prone to abuse).
Brgds,Patrick A. M. Maina(Independent Public Policy Analyst)
    On Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 11:17:12 PM GMT+3, Victor Kapiyo via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:  
 
 ARTICLE 19 is concerned by a series of internet shutdowns across Africa, most recently in Zimbabwe, where the internet has reportedly been blocked since 15 January. Similar shutdowns in Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon and South Sudan have likewise paralyzed access to information and communication for citizens of these countries.
https://www.article19.org/resources/africa-increasing-internet-shutdowns-and-media-bans-limiting-access-to-information

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