The internet is slowly closing down as a safe space for people to freely communicate. This was the central message of a four-person panel entitled "Privacy, safety and security in cyberspace: Implications for freedom of speech" held at the recent Highway Africa conference.
The internet is slowly closing down as a safe space for people to freely communicate. This was the central message of a four-person panel entitled "Privacy, safety and security in cyberspace: Implications for freedom of speech" held at the recent Highway Africa conference.
The panellists shared the sentiment that freedom of expression is being compromised and threatened on a daily basis due to a push by governments and telecommunications companies to make the internet more centralised, thus allowing them greater control over what can and can't be said online.
Head of Programmes at Media Monitoring Africa, Wellington Radu, addressed the attentive audience at the Eden Grove Red lecture theatre posing thought provoking analysis.
He called out telecommunications companies for only being interested in gathering people's information rather than creating a safe, internet-based public sphere.
"Those who can't access the internet cede their information to various companies like Facebook in order to gain access," he said.
This information is then sold to advertising companies, who utilise it in order to create "tailor-made" adverts targetting specific individuals.
To counter this trend, Radu recommends that communities are taught digital literacy, so that they know what companies intend to use their photographs and information for.
"We can't expect companies to protect our privacy," Radu said. Sue Valentine, Africa Program Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) spoke on the ways in which journalists are increasingly threatened online.
She cited the recent case of six Ethiopian bloggers who were arrested in April this year on terrorism charges for their use of social media.
The Zone 9 bloggers, as they are known, have been charged with “inciting chaos and violence through different websites pursuant to a plan to destabilize the country using social media by getting financial and intellectual support from a foreign force which calls itself a human rights defender”.
This incident is symptomatic of governmental attempts to stifle the speech of journalists, Valentine said.
"Freedom of expression is a foundational right as it speaks of the intergrity of journalists." she said.
The Film and Publication Board's (FPB) Abongile Vanda spoke about that organisations attempts to curb the spread and viewing of child pornography online.
"The FPB does set-up fake profiles on Facebook to track down stalkers and paedephiles on social media," she said.
Vanda also emphasised the different dangers that children may face online, including sexual abuse, cyber enticement, bullying and stalking.
