Abstract Book of the 5th World Conference on Media and Communication
Year: 2025
DOI:
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Digital Authoritarianism: A Critical Examination of the Regulation of Media Content On Freedom of Speech in Kenya
Faith Halima Kirigha
ABSTRACT:
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become increasingly prevalent for organising, activism and critique. Social media has become vital from the Arab Spring uprising to the most recent Movement dubbed #STOPLoaningKENYA. While this demonstrates media freedom in Kenya, there is a decline as government poses restrictions by enacting laws, processes, and regulatory silos. Kenya is recognised internationally for digital innovation, and media freedom is guaranteed in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution (Articles 33, 34, and 35). However, in practice, the media is governed by a set of regulations muddled within various sections of civil and criminal law, which limit the freedom of critics and protestors.
Furthermore, the impact and influence of Kenya’s legacy media have steadily declined over the last decade as social media has become a primary source of news and information for most Kenyans. With heavy dependency on advertisements, the media’s commercial viability has decreased as advertisers are shifting their attention away from conventional local media. The government has since become the biggest single advertiser in all the media houses. With this dominance, the government threatens to pull or withdraw its advertisements if a media house or journalist fails to report news in favour of government interests. While the governments cannot completely control the media or shut it down as they need it for legitimacy and to publicise and enact their policies, they do have strategies to manage the power other actors have through the same media platforms, including bribery, leaking messages and shutdowns.
This paper reports on a series of interviews with political bloggers, independent activists, human rights organisations, media organisations, and higher education institutions (HEIs) to understand the impact and implications of Kenya’s Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act (CMCA, 2018) on free speech and shed light on the politics of contemporary media management in Kenya.
keywords: Digital media, social media, regulation, authoritarianism, censorship, surveillance, democracy