Change Makers What motivated you to become an advocate for Internet freedom in Africa, and how did you get started? I think my personal story. I was a younger woman in 2010 who was an expatriate/immigrant living in France. I suddenly realised that an incredible tool such as the Internet, social media, and blogging specifically, provided an opportunity for me as a young African woman to tell my side of the story. I was based in a foreign country, which has a complicated relationship with my country of origin due to colonial history, etc. So, for me, having a platform like the Internet in general and social media was a way to say I'm not in the margins, I am part of this world, my voice matters and my opinion matters. My opinions can help the world to be a better place. I got involved in activism for free expression online because I wanted to ensure persons who look like me, could think the same things and tell themselves, yes, here is a tool where freedom is a principal and restrictions are the exception, so I can express myself and see the change that I want. What progress have you seen in the expansion of Internet freedom in Africa over the past ten years? Despite the general environment particularly with regard to Internet shutdowns e.g., in Gabon, Senegal, and my own country Cameroon, which has a bad record for long Internet shutdowns in Africa. Despite this grim image and context, I am very happy with the progress that has been made. More people are online, but the Internet is still expensive, and it's still a luxury for many around the world including on the African continent. There are many initiatives by governments, international agencies, development agencies, companies, or organizations, to close the digital divide and to advocate for the reduction of Internet access costs. Despite the fact that the Internet still remains a luxury for many, there has been huge progress in terms of cost reduction compared to 14 years ago when I started advocacy in the digital rights space. More people are online, and this is why we are seeing political developments that we’ve seen in the past few years. Examples include civil society and citizens being more vocal about what they are not happy about, especially during elections. The inflation of Internet shutdowns and censorship is actually a sign that people have more avenues to speak. So the fact that people have more avenues to speak means that some governments, especially the repressive ones, have no other means to silence populations other than by completely shutting off the Internet. This is counterproductive. We're seeing that the more shutdowns there are, the more political uprisings there are. In summary, we have seen the Internet and Internet access in general bring in a lot of progress when it comes to freedom of expression on the continent. Hence, the aggression of repressive regimes towards the Internet and platforms where people have the freedom to express whatever they want. So there's progress and I think we're increasingly getting to a space where we will have a democratic and safe digital environment in Africa. 28 A CIPESA Series