Last month, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, threatened to exit the Nigerian market. Why? Because of a decision requiring Meta to pay a US$220 million (approx. NGN348.17 billion) fine, remediate various violations, and then some. In the past, we’ve seen Meta comply with the appointments of agents in Europe and data transfer laws in other regions, but it threatens to pull out of the market when requested to do the same in Africa. This culture of selective compliance with laws across regions is what neo-colonialism in the digital age looks like. Then, of course, the issue of power imbalances akin to colonial times, where resources such as gold, or user data as is the case today, flow out while decision making remains abroad.
This is not an isolated case of the Big Tech cabal bullying and arm-twisting Africa. Recently, Frank Ssekamwa, Leni P. Sharon, Awino Mercy, and I lodged a complaint against Google LLC for failure to comply with the Ugandan digital and human rights legal regime. We were met with an unwillingness to engage from Google. It wasn’t a shock that Google had aligned itself with President Trump’s administration, which is similarly unwilling to engage at the multilateral level. Most unfortunate, however, was the lack of incentive on the side of the Ugandan data regulator the Personal Data Protection Office (PDPO), an office with a statutory mandate, staff and a taxpayer funded budget, in substantively disposing of said complaint which has serious ramifications for the rights of millions of Ugandan Google services’ users. But again, it goes without saying that the cause of conflict on the African continent has always been weak institutions and systems.
This power dynamic isn’t unique to statutory institutions like the PDPO. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other digital rights advocacy outfits find themselves in a similar dilemma due to companies like Google, Meta donating a certain percentage of their earnings to fund projects and other initiatives of these organisations. Whereas it is not evil in itself to accept big tech funding, it creates a reliance culture that can sometimes result in the CSO agenda being subtly steered away from meaningful advocacy against these ‘hands that feed’.
Advocacy is an essential tool for the creation of effective pushback, our last line of defence against the illegal, unconventional practices by the Big Tech oligarchy.
It goes without saying that the cause of conflict on the African continent has always been weak institutions and systems
Digital decolonisation then becomes an elixir to prevent the death of the African ‘digital’ state and assert sovereignty over data and governance, without which we risk enabling Big Tech to run massive and unaccountable parallel states. While at it, we need to think of reducing overreliance on overseas servers and other infrastructure, and investing in the development of African infrastructure. It is not just good for economic self-determination, cultural and linguistic inclusion of Africa’s diverse backgrounds, but also for security and resilience.
I propose the establishment of a digital sovereignty fund for Africa, which would act as a decolonisation fund, a model funded by regional members, the African diaspora, Pan-African institutions, crowdfunding, and local philanthropy. The fund would support meaningful advocacy by providing resources free from corporate strings, catalyse local innovation for homegrown solutions, and afford us some policy clout through a bolstered regulatory enforcement. That way, we can bend the trajectory of digital tech-services towards respect for rights and the good of Africa.
Let’s also focus on harmonisation of existing ‘Pan-African’ laws around digital governance, while noting that harmonisation doesn’t necessarily imply similarity. We must supplement this with setting up a digital ombudsperson office for Africa to enforce platform and institutional obligations for private and public players, respectively, and to handle the regulatory fragmentation issue.
Government agencies, regulators, CSOs, and digital rights advocacy vehicles need to collaborate in leveraging the power of the commons in an Ubuntu manner to pool and share resources. Let’s negotiate fair and equitable tech partnerships with multinationals as part of this collaborative agenda. This ensures that we have an equal seat at the table regarding our digital assets.
Finally, I challenge stakeholders and other bodies mandated under these laws around data and digital sovereignty to develop a ‘thick skin’ for the implementation of these laws. Policy makers should leverage their positions to chart Africa’s digital density. That way, the digital revolution becomes a force for genuine sovereignty, inclusion, and prosperity for current and future African digital natives.
