Digital Dissidence and Social Media Censorship in Africa

Farooq A. Kperogi

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
27 May 2024

Media studies; Ethnic studies; Politics & government

Series: Routledge African Media, Culture and Communication Studies

"This book reflects on the rapid rise of social media across the African continent and the legal and extra-legal efforts governments have invented to try to contain it.

The relentless growth of social media platforms in Africa has provided the means of resistance, self-expression, and national self-fashioning for the continent’s restlessly energetic and contagiously creative youth. This has provided a profound challenge to the African ""gatekeeper state"", which has often responded with strategies to constrict and constrain the rhetorical luxuriance of the social media and digital sphere. Drawing on cases from across the continent, contributors explore the form and nature of social media and government censorship, often via antisocial media laws, or less overt tactics such as state cybersurveillance, spyware attacks on social media activists, or the artful deployment of the rhetoric of ""fake news"" as a smokescreen to muzzle critical voices. The book also reflects on the Chinese influence in African governments’ clampdown on social media and the role of Israeli NSO Group Technologies, as well as the tactics and technologies which activists and users are deploying to resist or circumvent social media censorship.

Drawing on a range of methodologies and disciplinary approaches, this book will be an important contribution to researchers with an interest in social media activism, digital rebellion, discursive democracy in transitional societies, censorship on the Internet, and Africa more broadly."

Edited by: Farooq A. Kperogi
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032232287
ISBN 10: 1032232285
Series: Routledge African Media, Culture and Communication Studies
Pages: 274
Publication Date: 27 May 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Farooq A. Kperogi, PhD., is Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media at Kennesaw State University’s School of Communication and Media where he teaches and researches global communication, journalism, social media, communication research methods, global English articulations, virtual reality journalism, alternative media, citizen journalism, diasporic media, and a host of other communication topics.