AfIGF’24: Stop Internet shut downs, PIN boss advises African government - ITREALMS

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The 54 members of the African Union governments have been advised to stop shutting down the Internet due to its attendant havoc and demerits, reports ITREALMS.

The Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative, Mr. Gbenga Sesan, gave this advice at the just concluded 2024 African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) during a high-level session held at African Hall, UNCC- ECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, while speaking on the theme: "Building our Multistakeholder Digital Future for Africa."

“Governments, especially in Africa, must stop shutting down the Internet, so that we don’t disconnect more people,” he counseled.

He lamented that whilst efforts are being made to close digital divides by 2030, Sesan noted that about 67.5 per cent of the world is connected, with 37 per cent of Africa connected.

Sesan also canvased the expansion of inclusion through encouraging African youth, women, people living with disabilities in the digital space.

“They must all be included in the digital space and we must pay attention to language diversity,” he declared.

These, he said, could be achieved by fostering rights through respecting digital spaces, stressing that “digital space is the land-standing civic space and we must protect it for the good of democracy.”

In addition, he said that to advance responsible data governance, African governments, particularly, “must ensure that data protection agencies are able to do their work independently.”

To make Artificial Intelligence (AI) work for the good of all, Mr. Sesan pointed out that Africa must ensure that it has stake in the making of the global policy guidelines and take its place in engineering and training components.

“Africa must ensure we are on the table for policy, engineering and the training of AI systems,” he submitted.

AfIGF 2024 held in Addis Ababa between November 19 and 22.

Remmy Nweke/DoP

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