This book provides case studies on the strategies used by African governments in monitoring and controlling digital and social media, as well as the implications of such actions for claims about media freedom and freedom of expression. Further, the book examines the human rights challenges posed by state control and monitoring of digital and social media forms of communication. In the context of a digital surveillance state, it questions how digital and social media can possibly enhance the democratisation of both the communicative and political spaces. The book focuses on questions of censorship and control of digital and social media in ‘supposedly’ democratic societies. It discusses regulation and how governments have imposed their state power by ‘switching off’ the internet and blocking social media sites under the guise of national security and order maintenance.

Henri-Count Evans is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Eswatini, Eswatini. He is also a Research Associate at the University of Limpopo, South Africa. His research thematic focus areas are climate change and environmental communication, social media studies, and digital transformation.

Ruth Teer-Tomaselli is UNESCO Chair of Communication, Centre for Communication, Media and Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Tinashe Mawere is a researcher at the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender (CSA&G) at the University of Pretoria. His interests are in social media identity construction, gender, and sexualities, and the workings of popular culture in political and social contexts.