Social Media Has Given African Youth a Voice but Some Governments are Shutting Them Down

The names for these laws vary across countries but the purposes are similar, ostensibly a copycat syndrome where African leaders derive and devise these acts from their counterparts. This is in response to the prominence of social media, not just as a tool for expression but also as a medium for organizing into real-time activism.

Uganda as a pioneer

In a sense, Uganda is a pioneer with regard to laws that target digital dissent. Along with digital-related laws like the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act, 2010 and the Electronic Signatures Act, 2011, the Computer Misuse Act was first passed in 2011, in a localized response to the 2010 Arab Spring protests, which were partly spurred through digital channels. Many viewed it as an act of preservation by Museveni, who had been in power since 1986 and wasn’t looking to step down soon.

Dr. Stella Nyanzi, poet-activist and then lecturer at Makerere University, was arrested in 2017 for posting a poem criticizing Uganda’s first lady and president for failing to deliver sanitary pads to schools. She was released on a non-cash bail shortly after. A year later, Nyanzi was arrested for another poem posted on her Facebook account, where she wrote of Museveni’s birth in graphic terms and related it to his three-plus decades of rule, accusing him of oppression and bad governance.

Nyanzi was sentenced to 18 months in prison for “cyber harassment” under the Computer Misuse Act, but was acquitted of charges related to “offensive communication.” In 2020, a high court judge overturned the cyber harassment conviction, stating that Nyanzi wasn’t given a fair hearing. However, the high-profile case already had its impact.

“There are very many people who are going to think twice before they can express themselves in certain terms,” Dr. Peter Mwesige, co-founder of the Kampala-based African Centre For Media Excellence, said at the time of Nyanzi’s conviction. “I think [the Computer Misuse Act] narrows the frontiers of the right to free expression. Absolutely, it does.”

The conviction set the tone for how the Ugandan government has dealt with dissent that’s spread online. In December 2021, author and satirical novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was arrested for offensive communication. “Men with guns are breaking my door. They say they are policemen but are not in uniform. I've locked myself inside,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Before the arrest, Rukirabashaija had shared scathing posts on X (formerly Twitter) about Museveni’s regime and insulted his son, Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, calling him “obese.” During a brief home visit in January 2022, it was evident that the author had been seriously tortured, similar to his previous stint in custody after his debut book, The Greedy Barbarian, a satire seemingly reflecting Museveni’s unyielding hold of power, was published in 2020.

Laws that prosecute citizens for criticizing governments, especially in countries (supposedly) running a democracy, clearly limit civil liberties. Focusing that censorship on social media is no doubt deliberate. Despite recommendations that any amendments to the existing law should address retrogressive provisions on cyber harassment and offensive communication, the updated iteration passed in 2022 doubles down on curtailing freedom of expression.

Awebwa’s recent sentencing has been roundly condemned by opposition and civil groups, but many citizens might no longer want to air out any grievances about Museveni’s government.

Other notable cases on the continent

In nearby Tanzania, Shadrack Chaula, a portrait artist, was convicted of cybercrimes earlier this month, after a video of him burning a picture of President Samia Suluhu Hassan went viral online. Chaula was sentenced to two years in prison or to pay a fine of $2,000 (over 5 million Tanzanian Shillings).

Shortly after his sentencing, social media users crowdfunded more than $2,100 to pay Chaula’s fine. He was released from prison after the fine was paid. “I don't support insults but the government should use wisdom to deal with these issues,” Godlisten Malisa, the activist who coordinated the fund-raising, wrote in the Instagram post announcing the success of the crowdfunding. “You will arrest one Chaula, but there are many who are hurt and unable to express their feelings in public.”

In 2015, Tanzania enacted its Cybercrimes Act and, amidst provisions for data espionage and heinous crimes like the publication of child pornography, it’s been used to target opposition and prosecute citizens who insult the president. In that same period, amendments to the Electronic and Communications Act emphasized restricting freedom of speech online, while the 2016 Media Services Act gave the government power to shut down media publications and platforms.

Under former President John Magufuli, who passed away in 2021, more than 10 people were charged for insulting the president on platforms like WhatsApp, a precedent that has now continued with Hassan.

In May, Malawian citizen Sainani Nkhoma was convicted of insultingPresident Lazarus Chakwera, with a judge stating that his actions were inappropriate. Nkhoma was taken from his home by members of the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in Mponela, in Dowa district, after he commented on a TikTok video that showed a superimposed image of Chakwera dancing quirkily to lyrics that had offensive language.

The MCP members forcibly took Nkhoma to the police, and he was eventually charged for contravening the prohibition of offensive communication article in Malawi’s Electronic Transaction and Cyber Security Act, 2016, which has been criticized for silencing dissent and targeting journalists. Although Nkhoma’s arrest was driven by fellow citizens who are ruling party zealots, his conviction strengthens the narrative of the president’s infallibility, something many African leaders clearly want.

Last September, Angolan social media influencer Ana da Silva Miguel, popularly known as Neth Nahara, had her initial 6 month prison sentence increased to 2 years by an appeal court, after she was found guilty of insulting President João Lourenço.

Miguel was arrested for a TikTok livestream where she accused Lourenço of “anarchy and disorganization,” adding that the president should be blamed for the lack of schools, housing and employment in the oil-rich country. She was convicted of “outrage against the state, its symbols, and bodies,” and ordered to pay a fine of 1 million Kwanza ($1,200).

Despite pleading for leniency and saying she regretted her remarks, the court granted the prosecutor’s appeal for an increased sentence, with Judge Salomão Raimundo Kulanda stating that the president is sovereign. According to Miguel’s lawyer, this was the first time an Angolan would be convicted for something they said on TikTok.

While Angola already had provisions for “Electronic Falsehood” within the scope of its data protection and cybersecurity laws, Miguel’s conviction sets the tone for harsher enforcement and possibly amended provisions that will target the length and breadth of social media in Angola. Considering reports of state forces killing and gravely abusing activists, as well as police killing peaceful protesters, there’s precedent for an already repressive government to become even more stern.

Broader efforts to censor social media in Africa

Regardless of the feelings and freedom of its citizens, censoring social media has been made a priority by many African leaders, even to the point of limiting social media access on a broad scale. In Nigeria, the government, led by then-President Muhammadu Buhari banned access to X (then known as Twitter) through local internet service providers, after several posts on Buhari’s account were deleted for being in violation of the platform’s rules.

Buhari had shared several tweets threatening regional separatists in the country’s southeast, while invoking the Nigeria-Biafra civil war between 1967 and 1970, during which over a million Igbo people and Southeasterners were killed. The tweets were widely reported and taken down, but they led to the now infamous Twitter ban of 2022, which many believed had been brewing since the platform served as a galvanizing area for the #EndSARS protests.

The Twitter ban showed the extra lengths the Nigerian government is willing to go to exact its will, and as is known, African leaders aren’t shy to copy each other’s terrible policies. Similar to other countries on the continent, Nigeria does have its own Cybercrimes Act, passed in 2015, and it’s been routinely used by top public officials to target journalists and arrest citizens.

Where it gets even more dangerous is that it’s being exploited by citizens, especially popular, rich people. Last week, popular actress Toyin Abrahamadmitted to making “a report on cybercrime as a citizen,” after she came under fire for allegedly having the mother of an X user arrested who insulted her online. Abraham, who has been heavily criticized for supporting Nigerian President Bola Tinubudespite the dire economic situation of the country, said she would no longer tolerate “the threats and curses on my family.”

It is widely alleged that the Nigerian police are routinely used by the rich to intimidate, harass and arrest, and the Cybercrimes Act is seemingly invoked in many cases. Currently, Chioma Okoli, a Lagos resident, is standing trial for a case based on the act, and she has to travel all the way to the capital Abuja to attend the hearings. Okoli was arrested after her negative review of a tomato puree by Erisco Foods Limited went viral online.

The handling of Okoli’s high-profile case has many wondering if the Cybercrimes Act is being misused, and to what extent. In Nigeria, as in other African countries, there’s an ambiguity to the laws that target social media censorship, which allows for freedom of speech to be repressed and for criticisms to be harshly prosecuted.

As Ridwan Oke, a Nigerian lawyer, told OkayAfrica this year, “It’s a direct affront to freedom of expression and it is too wide and untamed.” Oke’s statement is about Nigeria, but it applies to several African countries.