An analysis of Social Media use in The SADC region - 2014 - 2020 Conclusion Social media has both positive and negative impacts within the region, hence double edged, as has been highlighted within the paper. To deal with the risk and harness the opportunities associated with social media use, the paper has shown a number of international, regional and national legal provisions to ensure digital rights. Despite the foregoing, the existing fragmented institutional framework and legal provisions are not being fully implemented in the region; hence cases of digital rights abuses, mainly freedom of expression abuse continue to be a norm in the region. This applies primarily to the enforcement of existing legal claims in the event of a dispute, which, given the international nature of the platforms, the often-anonymous communication and occasional difficulty of allocating the responsibility of the different parties involved, has been precarious. This paper concludes that the right to freedom of expression 236 as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights237 which protects the right for everyone to own opinions and to express them freely without interference, must be safeguarded and ensured on social media. There is need to consider the above ten recommendations and further studies on the issues of social media in the region mainly related to access, affordability, misinformation, gender and children. 236 https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/freedom-of-expression/ 237 https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ 51 https://zimbabwe.misa.org