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Opening and Closing Civic Space Online: activist hashtags and government shutdowns across Africa

The African Digital Rights Network identified 65 examples of citizens using digital technologies to open online civic space and 115 examples of government tech tools and tactics to close them down. Their new report Digital Rights in Closing Civic Space distils lessons from ten African countries about the positive use of digital technologies to open democratic spaces online and what needs to be done about the repressive use of digital surveillance, disinformation and internet shutdowns.

https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/h...

2020 was the 15th consecutive year of declining political freedoms and closing civic space (Freedom House 2020, CIVICUS 2020). Forced underground of into exile, activists are endlessly creative in using SMS, social media, and anonymisation tools to open civic spaces online. But for every new tactic of opening - repressive governments and their private sectors partners - are deploying twice as many tools and techniques to close down these new democratic online civic spaces.

In this year’s Ugandan election, the opposition leader was jailed and physical campaigning limited. Activists responded to this closing of offline space by using social media to voice opposition in campaigns that went viral internationally. The President denied citizens the right to privacy and to political participation by deploying surveillance, disinformation, shutting down the internet entirely.

https://www.africandigitalrightsnetwo...

The African Digital Rights Network exists to devise remedies and solutions to these attacks on citizens’ rights. We work with activists, journalists, researchers and policymakers in ten African countries to produce evidence, raise awareness and build technical and legal remedies to re-open civic space and expand citizens’ ability to express, defence and expand their digital rights.

Speakers:
Juliet Nanfuka (CIPESA) author of the Uganda Digital Rights Landscape Report

Tanja Bosch (UCT) author of the South African Digital Rights Landscape Report

Chair:
Tony Roberts (IDS Fellow) co-author of the synthesis introduction report.