27 SOUTHERN AFRICA PRESS FREEDOM REPORT 2019-2020 the internet and the need to access Covid-19 related information that was critical at the time. This resulted in stakeholders under Media Alliance of Zimbabwe instituting a #DataMustFall Campaign to advocate against further increases in prices of data tariffs. Commendably, in South Africa, Telkom has zero-rated educational websites URLs to support learning and teaching. These include the National Institute for Communicable Diseases website and the SA government’s coronavirus information website to drive accurate information for infection control. (24) On the other hand, Vodafone also Vodafone, also announced a fivepoint plan to help the communities in which it operates which included: • Maintaining the quality of service of networks. • Providing network capacity and services for critical government functions. • Improving dissemination of information to the public. • Facilitating working from home and helping the small and micro businesses within its supply chain. • Improving government’s insights into people’s movements in affected areas. Another key digital rights issue related to the Covid-19 regulations that were also enacted during that time. The Tanzanian government did not acknowledge that Covid-19 existed in Tanzania. This, therefore, greatly impacted the public’s access to information, any potential advocacy initiatives by CSOs and also media freedom and freedom of expression on anything related to Covid-19. resulted in further infringement on freedom of expression as people were afraid to communicate, fearing arrest. For instance, in South Africa, in terms of the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002, it is a criminal offence to publish false information about Covid-19 and the offence is punishable by a fine or six-month imprisonment or both. Eight people were arrested for allegedly disseminating false information about the pandemic, while a man was arrested for discrediting the Covid-19 tests kits that the government intended to use in its massive testing campaign and discouraged people from participating in the testing exercise. (25) In Swaziland, Section 29 of the Covid-19 Regulations (26) criminalises the spreading of any rumour or unauthenticated information regarding Covid-19; publishing any statement, through any medium, including social media, with the intention to deceive any other person about Covid-19; using print or electronic media on the Covid-19 infection status of any person; or spreading of any rumour or unauthentic information regarding any measure taken by the government to address Covid-19. The offence is punishable by a fine not exceeding 20,000 emalangeni (US$1,173.71) or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. Eugene Dube, Editor of the Swati Newsweek and reporter Mfomfo Nkhambule were arrested for contravening Covid-19 regulations on the publication of false news. After seven hours of interrogation, Dube was released without charge. The Covid-19 regulations that banned sharing of information on Covid-19 was used by the government to prevent citizens or the media from reporting or commenting on the pandemic Prior to the arrest, the Swati Newsweek had published articles that were critical of the king(27). The article that Nkhambule wrote criticised the kingdom’s approach in their Covid-19 response. The Tanzanian government also enacted the Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations which negatively impacted digital rights at individual and institutional levels. In other countries in the region, tracking and or tracing applications were also developed and deployed, which applications were aimed at assisting with the containment of the Covid-19 virus. Further, during Covid-19, the World Health Organisation also declared what was termed an ‘infodemic’ referring to the overabundance of information. This overabundance of information resulted in the high spread of disinformation particularly relating to Covid-19. In the process, however, such applications were monitoring and tracking citizens which would be described as mass surveillance and also collecting so much data about the users. From the broader African region, countries like South Africa, Botswana, Tunisia and Morocco adopted such tracking application. This, therefore, posed a great threat to online access of genuine and accurate information by citizens. In response to the prevalence of disinformation, government responses also Privacy advocates flagged concerns around the use of location tracking services that they warned could be used by the government for