Change Makers What are some of the most promising innovations, best practices, and initiatives that are contributing to the expansion of Internet freedom and digital rights in Africa? One innovative initiative that has contributed to the expansion of Internet freedom and digital rights in Africa over the last decade has been the conceptualization, development, and adoption of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedom, which was built on a rich heritage of civil society freedom of expression advocacy and standard setting in Africa. The Declaration came out of an idea Prof. Kwame Karikari, then Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), and I conceived sometime in February of 2013 to develop a set of principles that would inform and possibly inspire policy and legislative processes on Internet rights, freedoms, and governance in Africa. At the time, we were very concerned about policy-making by governments across Africa in the digital communications and Internet sectors, particularly in the areas of cybersecurity and cybercrime. That policy environment was characterized by a combination of fear, ignorance of digital technologies, and a desire to control more outspoken populations engaging in public debates about governance and other issues using digital platforms and social media. Working with a number of civil society stakeholders, led by Anriette Esterhuysen, then Executive Director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), we engaged in a collaborative process of harvesting the expertise, experiences, contacts, and other resources that different organizations could bring to the table. The Declaration, which emerged at the end of the process, was intended to guide the creation of a positive, rights-based, and democratically governed Internet policy environment in Africa. It was also a major advocacy tool in the development of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa. Other promising initiatives and good practices have been efforts by a number of civil society organizations to monitor violations of digital rights and Internet freedom with the findings from such monitoring activities serving as a basis for advocacy and campaigns on Internet freedom. 14 What are some of the emerging threats or pressing challenges to Internet freedom in Africa, and how can we stay ahead of them? Strictly speaking, it is not accurate to call this an emerging threat, but it is an ongoing threat and, I believe, one of the most serious challenges facing the Internet regulatory environment in Africa and, perhaps, in some other regions. There is no doubt that governments have a responsibility and frequently a legitimate desire to curb online criminal activities, particularly financial crimes and terrorist activities. But we continue to witness clear instances where the pursuit of these apparently legitimate objectives is also being used to introduce provisions that have no direct relevance to these goals but are merely intended to curtail criticism of the government. In addition to this challenge, many African governments do not have the technical and legal competence to legislate on such a complex issue as the Internet. They, therefore, often depend on other countries to pass their own laws. But in their efforts to regulate the Internet and online activities, such governments appear to “learn” from the worst examples and replicate what I would call “international worst practice.” The tendency is for these governments to take laws of questionable legitimacy from other countries or other regions and adapt them in their countries with little or no changes. Usually, the context and local conditions in these countries are very different. Additionally, in most cases, many critical stakeholders are excluded from the policy or legislative processes, and so there is no input from non-governmental stakeholders. A CIPESA Series