Confronting Digital Hate: Africa’s Legal and Ethical Response to Hate Speech
Posted: 18 June, 2025 Filed under: Hlengiwe Dube | Tags: #NoToHate, AI, Artificial intelligence, communication landscapes, Countering Hate Speech, cyber-harassment, cyberstalking, Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, discrimination, freedom of expression, gender equality, gender-based violence, gender-sensitive enforcement mechanisms, hate speech, hateful messages, hostility, human dignity, interconnected digital age, International Day for Countering Hate Speech, new technologies, peacebuilding, printed propaganda, sexist hate speech, UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, violence, vulnerable groups 1 Comment
Author: Hlengiwe Dube
Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
Every year on June 18, the world comes together to observe the International Day for Countering Hate Speech, a solemn reminder that words can wound deeply and sometimes irreparably. Hate speech is not a new problem. Throughout history, language has been weaponised to demean, divide, and destroy, but today, in our interconnected digital age, the scale, speed, and sophistication of hate speech’s spread are unprecedented. This is especially true in Africa, a continent marked by extraordinary diversity in ethnicity, religion, culture, and language, where hate speech can quickly inflame tensions and threaten peace. The devastating consequences of hate speech in Africa are not merely theoretical. The 1994 Rwandan genocide stands as the darkest example, where incendiary radio broadcasts and printed propaganda dehumanised the Tutsi minority, turning words into deadly action. This tragedy also became a powerful lesson in the importance of vigilance, legal safeguards, and coordinated responses to hateful rhetoric.
Afro-digital ethics, law and online hate in Africa
Posted: 13 July, 2020 Filed under: Thompson Chengeta | Tags: Africa, African, African ethics, Afro-digital ethics, AI, artificial intelligence technologies, artificial technology, digital, ghost accounts, haana hunhu, hate speech, hateful messages, humanism, hunhu, international standards, natural language processing, online hate, online platforms, personhood, Rabat Plan of Action, South Africa, ubuntu, ubuntuism, virtual, xenophobia 2 Comments
Author: Thompson Chengeta
European Research Council Fellow on Artificial Intelligence Ethics and law, University of Southampton
Introduction
Across the globe, there is a general increase in online hate and sharing of hateful messages on online platforms. The past weeks saw hateful and xenophobic hashtags trending in South Africa. As noted by some commentators, online hate “can pollute civic discourse, inflict harm on targeted victims, create and exacerbate social divisions, and erode trust in the host platforms”. Online hate should not only be dealt with in terms of the law but also afro-digital ethics. With increased internet penetration in Africa, advent of smartphones and digital platforms, many people spend most of their time online. In this digital age, the virtues of our lives are beginning to be shaped and influenced by our virtual lives. Yet, not much has been done to guide our lives – particularly those of young people – in this new virtual world. The African saying “it takes a village to raise a child” denotes communitarian ethos relating to duties of the elderly in the community to instil African ethics in young persons. But does such an African village exist online? While digital technologies are undoubtedly impacting our African utopias or dystopias on what it means to be humane, the elderly who usually enforce and instil African ethics and morality in young people are offline. For parents who are online, they rarely have access to their children’s online platforms for many reasons including the use of ghost accounts. I also contend that a failure to respect African ethics online is a result of the breakdown of African communitarian ethos in the real world. For example, the spread of hateful content against fellow Africans has its genesis in economic failures of African leaders, most of whom are selfishly and corruptly enriching themselves.
AfricLaw 