Mapping the Supply of Surveillance Technologies to Africa: Case Studies from Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Malawi, and Zambia, 2023
African governments are spending over 1US$bn per year on digital surveillance technologies which ... more African governments are spending over 1US$bn per year on digital surveillance technologies which are being used without adequate legal protections in ways that regularly violate citizens’ fundamental human rights. This report documents which companies, from which countries, are supplying which types of surveillance technology to African governments. Without this missing detail, it is impossible to adequately design measures to mitigate and overcome illegal surveillance and violations of human rights. Since the turn of the century, we have witnessed a digitalisation of surveillance that has enabled the algorithmic automation of surveillance at a scale not previously imaginable. Surveillance of citizens was once a labour and time-intensive process. This provided a practical limit to the scope and depth of state surveillance. The digitalisation of telephony has made it possible to automate the search for keywords across all mobile and internet communications. For the first time, state surveillance agencies can do two things: (a) conduct mass surveillance of all citizens’ communications, and (b) micro-target individuals for in-depth surveillance that draws together in real-time data from mobile calls, short message service (SMS), internet messaging, global positioning system (GPS) location, and financial transactions. This report was produced by qualitative analysis of open-source data in the public domain. The information presented is drawn from a diverse range of sources, including open government data sets, export licence portals, procurement notices, civil society databases of surveillance contracts, press releases from surveillance companies, academic articles, reports, and media coverage. The research is organised using a typology of five categories of surveillance technology. We did not set out to detail every technology available, every company, or every supply contract. Instead, we document the main companies and countries selling digital surveillance technologies to African governments. Rather than focus on the technical functionality distinguishing each product offering, we highlight five of the most important types of surveillance technology: internet interception, mobile interception, social media surveillance, ‘safe city’ technologies for the surveillance of public spaces, and biometric identification technologies.
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Tony Roberts (Anthology Editor), Tanja Bosch (Anthology Editor)
Description
Since the so-called Arab Spring, citizens of African countries have continued to use digital tools in creative ways to ensure that marginalised voices are heard, and to demand for the rights they are entitled to in law: to freely associate, to form opinions, and to express them online without fear of violence or arrest. The authors of this compelling open access volume have brought to life this dramatic struggle for the digital realm between citizens and governments; documenting in vivid detail how citizens are using mobile and internet tools in powerful viral global campaigns to hold governments accountable and force policy change.
With contributions from scholars across the continent, Digital Citizenship in Africa illustrates how citizens have been using VPNs, encryption, and privacy-protecting browsers to resist limits on their rights to privacy and political speech. This book dramatically expands our understanding of the vast and growing arsenal of tech tools, tactics, and techniques now being deployed by repressive governments to limit the ability of citizens to safely and openly express opposition to government and corporate actions. AI-enabled surveillance, covertly deployed disinformation, and internet shutdowns are documented in ten countries, concluding with recommendations on how to curb government and corporate power, and how to re-invigorate digital citizenship across Africa.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
List of contributors
Foreword - Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: Spaces of digital citizenship in Africa - Tony Roberts and Tanja Bosch
2 Ethno-religious citizenship in Nigeria: Ethno-religious fault lines and the truncation of collective resilience of digital citizens: The cases of #ENDSARS and #PantamiMustGo in Nigeria - Ayobami Ojebode, Babatunde Ojebuyi, Oyewole Oladapo and Marjoke Oosterom
3 Digital crossroads: Continuity and change in Ethiopia's digital citizenship - Atnaf Brhane and Yohannes Eneyew
4 Internet shutdowns and digital citizenship - Felicia Anthonio and Tony Roberts
5 Feminist digital citizenship in Nigeria - Sandra Ajaja
6 Digital citizenship and cyber-activism in Zambia - Sam Phiri, Kiss Abraham and Tanja Bosch
7 Digital citizenship and political accountability in Namibia's 2019 election - Mavis Elias and Tony Roberts
8 Citizenship, African languages and digital rights: The role of language in defining the limits and opportunities for digital citizenship in Kiswahili-language communities - Nanjala Nyabola
Books
CHAPTER PREVIEW
Zambia has enjoyed a multi-party system since 1991. This is a good 27 years since its governance system was changed from the less participatory system of the one party state to a more democratic system. A good number of the youths therefore are the ‘born-frees’ who never experienced the draconian political reality where alternative views and political thoughts were not the norm.
Before 1991, Zambia was from 1973, a single party dictatorship where political participation was limited to members of the then ruling United National Independence Party (UNIP) led by the mercurial Kenneth Kaunda. Until his defeat to the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) in 1991, Zambia’s founding President Kaunda had been in office for 27 years, that is from 1964.
By 2018, a further 27 years had passed, in which a whole new generation had grown-up. This is a group of youths who are generally oblivious to the circumstances that prevailed during much of the earlier post-colonial 27 years. However, since 1991, the year that marked Zambia’s transition back to multi-party democracy, there has been a massive growth in the utilisation of the internet, for discourse and for political activism on social media and other platforms, in Zambia and across the world. Some two decades into the 21st century, it is estimated that about 80 per cent of Zambians have access to cell phones or the internet (Malakata, 2018). The increased access to these digital communication platforms has important consequences for democratic participation among citizens (Lindgren, 2017. p147), especially the youth. This is so because generally, technical determinists have contended, from as far back as the 1990s, that the ubiquity and easier availability of the internet does engender a more pro-active digital citizenship which brings about a more critical population and in turn, produces a much more politically participative system
Furthermore, it is assumed that a well-functioning democracy flourishes in a society where citizens are active members of political processes by providing checks and balances on power holders. Such a society is built upon a collective intelligence (Fuchs, 2017. P 67) that buttresses various challenges to political power; and also ensures that barriers to free expression and open civic engagement are scrapped. In such a society, grassroots’ freedom of expression and participatory democracy is thus extended to “all realms of society” (ibid).
This chapter traces the origins of youth activism, more specifically student politicking since independence in 1964, and then examines two recent instances in which Zambian university students, perhaps the most enlightened section among the Zambian youths, a majority of whom are under the age of 27, use modern means of communication like the internet, and social media, to consolidate a participatory political culture and freedom of expression. The chapter explores how youth activism has metamorphosed in recent times, and how it manifests itself nowadays. Two specific examples are given to illustrate youth civic engagement in Zambia today. Furthermore, the discourse acknowledges that although the inspiration for participatory democracy may have emerged from among youthful students (Lynd, 1965) of the 1960s, there is now an even more urgent need to examine whether that abrasive and radical approach to politics has been carried through by the current generation using both the new and mainstream media platforms.
to be facilitators of women’s empowerment, they can also be used to dis-empower the women with the full utilisation of cultural or religious frames and practices. It is further said that ICTs have both a positive and negative edge to them and thus
should be used much more carefully.
Thesis Chapters
Tony Roberts (Anthology Editor), Tanja Bosch (Anthology Editor)
Description
Since the so-called Arab Spring, citizens of African countries have continued to use digital tools in creative ways to ensure that marginalised voices are heard, and to demand for the rights they are entitled to in law: to freely associate, to form opinions, and to express them online without fear of violence or arrest. The authors of this compelling open access volume have brought to life this dramatic struggle for the digital realm between citizens and governments; documenting in vivid detail how citizens are using mobile and internet tools in powerful viral global campaigns to hold governments accountable and force policy change.
With contributions from scholars across the continent, Digital Citizenship in Africa illustrates how citizens have been using VPNs, encryption, and privacy-protecting browsers to resist limits on their rights to privacy and political speech. This book dramatically expands our understanding of the vast and growing arsenal of tech tools, tactics, and techniques now being deployed by repressive governments to limit the ability of citizens to safely and openly express opposition to government and corporate actions. AI-enabled surveillance, covertly deployed disinformation, and internet shutdowns are documented in ten countries, concluding with recommendations on how to curb government and corporate power, and how to re-invigorate digital citizenship across Africa.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
List of contributors
Foreword - Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: Spaces of digital citizenship in Africa - Tony Roberts and Tanja Bosch
2 Ethno-religious citizenship in Nigeria: Ethno-religious fault lines and the truncation of collective resilience of digital citizens: The cases of #ENDSARS and #PantamiMustGo in Nigeria - Ayobami Ojebode, Babatunde Ojebuyi, Oyewole Oladapo and Marjoke Oosterom
3 Digital crossroads: Continuity and change in Ethiopia's digital citizenship - Atnaf Brhane and Yohannes Eneyew
4 Internet shutdowns and digital citizenship - Felicia Anthonio and Tony Roberts
5 Feminist digital citizenship in Nigeria - Sandra Ajaja
6 Digital citizenship and cyber-activism in Zambia - Sam Phiri, Kiss Abraham and Tanja Bosch
7 Digital citizenship and political accountability in Namibia's 2019 election - Mavis Elias and Tony Roberts
8 Citizenship, African languages and digital rights: The role of language in defining the limits and opportunities for digital citizenship in Kiswahili-language communities - Nanjala Nyabola
CHAPTER PREVIEW
Zambia has enjoyed a multi-party system since 1991. This is a good 27 years since its governance system was changed from the less participatory system of the one party state to a more democratic system. A good number of the youths therefore are the ‘born-frees’ who never experienced the draconian political reality where alternative views and political thoughts were not the norm.
Before 1991, Zambia was from 1973, a single party dictatorship where political participation was limited to members of the then ruling United National Independence Party (UNIP) led by the mercurial Kenneth Kaunda. Until his defeat to the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) in 1991, Zambia’s founding President Kaunda had been in office for 27 years, that is from 1964.
By 2018, a further 27 years had passed, in which a whole new generation had grown-up. This is a group of youths who are generally oblivious to the circumstances that prevailed during much of the earlier post-colonial 27 years. However, since 1991, the year that marked Zambia’s transition back to multi-party democracy, there has been a massive growth in the utilisation of the internet, for discourse and for political activism on social media and other platforms, in Zambia and across the world. Some two decades into the 21st century, it is estimated that about 80 per cent of Zambians have access to cell phones or the internet (Malakata, 2018). The increased access to these digital communication platforms has important consequences for democratic participation among citizens (Lindgren, 2017. p147), especially the youth. This is so because generally, technical determinists have contended, from as far back as the 1990s, that the ubiquity and easier availability of the internet does engender a more pro-active digital citizenship which brings about a more critical population and in turn, produces a much more politically participative system
Furthermore, it is assumed that a well-functioning democracy flourishes in a society where citizens are active members of political processes by providing checks and balances on power holders. Such a society is built upon a collective intelligence (Fuchs, 2017. P 67) that buttresses various challenges to political power; and also ensures that barriers to free expression and open civic engagement are scrapped. In such a society, grassroots’ freedom of expression and participatory democracy is thus extended to “all realms of society” (ibid).
This chapter traces the origins of youth activism, more specifically student politicking since independence in 1964, and then examines two recent instances in which Zambian university students, perhaps the most enlightened section among the Zambian youths, a majority of whom are under the age of 27, use modern means of communication like the internet, and social media, to consolidate a participatory political culture and freedom of expression. The chapter explores how youth activism has metamorphosed in recent times, and how it manifests itself nowadays. Two specific examples are given to illustrate youth civic engagement in Zambia today. Furthermore, the discourse acknowledges that although the inspiration for participatory democracy may have emerged from among youthful students (Lynd, 1965) of the 1960s, there is now an even more urgent need to examine whether that abrasive and radical approach to politics has been carried through by the current generation using both the new and mainstream media platforms.
to be facilitators of women’s empowerment, they can also be used to dis-empower the women with the full utilisation of cultural or religious frames and practices. It is further said that ICTs have both a positive and negative edge to them and thus
should be used much more carefully.