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African governments are now requesting more information on what their citizens do online
African governments are clearly showing their distaste for not having control over activities of citizens online.
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In the July 2017 policy brief of the International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt and Kenya were ranked high among African countries requesting from citizens information from Facebook, Twitter and Google.
Nigerian government requested the most information from Facebook between 2013 and 2016. Information on 119 Facebook accounts was requested by the Nigerian government.
In Nigeria, like other African countries, social media users are now considered a credible opposition to the government.
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Ghana also asked Facebook to block content that were overly critical of the government. While Cameroon shut down internet in its English-speaking region to cull protest against the government.
Google and Twitter also recorded a surge in information request from African governments. For Google, Kenya topped the list with highest number of requests.
63% of requests made by Kenya to Google were granted in H2 2013. However, the tech giant rejected later requests from the government.
For Twitter, similar requests were received from Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and South Sudan. It, however, complied with some 'Emergency Requests' by Kenya and the Nigerian government.
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