Facebook’s ongoing scramble for Africa
In 2016, Facebook’s grand project to ‘connect the unconnected’ was banned in India after a year-long national debate led by digital activists....
How Social Media is Changing Politics in Africa
In our popular Book Club feature, Maggie Dwyer and Thomas Molony reflect on the key lessons of their important new volume on Social Media...
How hashtag activism moves offline in The Gambia
In The Gambia, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are directly, and indirectly, shaping politics. The latest We Are Social’s Digital report counted 370,000...
Fake News in Africa – How Big is the Problem?
How dangerous is fake news in Africa? And how much of it is there? Do people know when they are circulating fake news? And...
The hidden costs of social media in African elections – the...
Some say social media is killing democracy. But others counter that social media is making politics more inclusive and accountable. What does the evidence...
Short on strategy: WhatsApp use in the Ugandan elections
This week’s general election in Uganda concludes a unique campaign. In July 2020, the Electoral Commission announced restrictions in response to the...
What Google Trends Data can Tell Us About the Tanzanian Election
Over the last 5 years, Tanzania has seen a steady increase in authoritarian practices. This trend reached its climax in the recent...
Digital technologies and the new public square: revitalising democracy?
Over the past 15+ years, the world has witnessed an astonishing transformation in information and communications technologies (ICTs) across both developed and...
How Digital Repression Is Changing African Politics
Africa’s first election of 2021, featuring a presidential race in Uganda between President Yoweri Museveni and opposition leader Bobi Wine, provided a...
Governance and Public Policy in the Digital Age
The US President announces that he authorised a targeted assassination of a senior Iranian military official. The Iranian Foreign Minister announces that...
What next for UK-Africa relations after Brexit?