The spread of potentially harmful content such as hate speech and dis/misinformation has increasingly become an issue of concern that threatens public access to information, social cohesion, peace and democracy.
On 12 April 2023, UNESCO in partnership with Paradigm Initiative held an expert panel discussion titled Big Tech & Content Moderation: Challenges, Realities, and opportunities for Kenya/Africa themed: Building Sustainable Internet for All” at the regional Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF) in Nairobi, Kenya.
Victor Bwire, Director, Media Training and Development, Media Council of Kenya highlighted that laws such as the National Cohesion and Integration Act (Act No. 12 of 2008) and the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act of 2018 that aim to effectively limit the spread of hate speech and disinformation has not borne much fruit in the recent past.
Collaborative arrangements that ensure inclusion of all key relevant stakeholders in content moderation, are crucial towards effectively tackling problematic content. Equally a multi-pronged approach - such as the recently launched coalition - as opposed to a one size fits all deemed more effective.
Wakesho Kililo, Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and Africa Coordinator, Digital Rights at the Greater Internet Freedom (GIF) Project, Internews, stated that while there are limitations to freedom of expression under existing national legislations, protection of the universal fundamental rights remains pertinent. She further said: “Media, civil societies and tech companies need to work together to ensure platform accountability that doesn’t infringe on the fundamental rights of human beings.”
Caleb Gichuhi, Africa Lead and Kenya Office , Build Up stated that social media companies have began stepping up their standards and actions to curb harmful content due to the increasing circulation of illegal and harmful content, although more needs to be done on platforms. He said: “Through the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to identify content that violates their policies, social media platforms are working with third party fact checking organizations to identify and address mis/disinformation, or engage “trusted partners” to monitor and flag harmful content as well as rely on users to report content that violates policies on these platforms.”
Victor Kapiyo, Advocate and Digital Rights Expert, KICTANET indicated that social media users in Kenya have learnt how to instrumentalize and weaponize social media platforms to propagate harmful content and censor speech in several ways without detection or action from social media platforms. To remedy this, he said: “The recently launched national coalition on freedom of expression and content moderation for Kenya by UNESCO will provide a mechanism for improvement of dialogue, cooperation, and coordination of efforts between CSOs, regulators, and tech companies to address harmful content, disinformation and hate speech, on digital platforms.”
Civil society organizations have increased their efforts to strengthen digital media and information on literacy competencies and thereby sensitize the public to online harm, however, this is done in an uncoordinated manner. Ms Wanjiru Nguhi, Program Manager, Fumbua Initiative, at Baraza Media stated that: “There is need to re-examine engagement (especially with government) and advocacy strategies to effectively address issues. It is crucial that actors move beyond reacting in the spur of the moment and being driven by emotions which in most instance’s results in impulsive decisions.”
She further said that there is a need for collaborative advocacy among stakeholders for content moderation in local languages on digital platforms.
Organized under the pilot project ‘Social Media 4 Peace’ funded by the European Union, the session explored existing approaches and opportunities on moderation of harmful content in Kenya and how these could be replicated in other countries across the African continent. It also discussed the importance of multi-stakeholder cooperation and collaboration, various accountability models and how to improve safety by design to address hate speech and disinformation in Kenya.
The session attracted over 50 participants comprising of Paradigm Initiative Access Now, Communications Authority, Media Council of Kenya, National Cohesion and Integration Commission, Ministries of ICTs and Education, media organizations and associations, International NGOs and civil society (Article 19, Code for Africa, Search for Common Grounds), Youth organizations and youth leaders, and Academia.