Slightly more than half of 65 nations reviewed in the new Freedom on the Net 2019 report show a decline in access, democratic protections for speech, and related Internet and social media rights – with Sudan showing one of the biggest drops and Zimbabwe not far behind. The annual report…
China delivered a blistering retort on Monday to new remarks about spying at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, a claim that has circulated in recent years but was recently referenced by a U.S. official seeking to persuade nations not to use China’s Huawei firm and its equipment. Spokesman…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi will deliver opening ceremony remarks Tuesday as the Paris Peace Forum kicks off, but he is one of many African heads of state traveling to discuss global issues ranging from climate change to security, and stolen art to good governance principles. Tshisekedi will join host President…
Authorities in the United States filed charges on Wednesday against three men – two of them Twitter employees – who they say used internal access to user data to help Saudi Arabia track its dissidents, such as the late Jamal Khashoggi. The charges against the three, filed by the U.S….
Scientists working with Abbott Laboratories in the United States say they’ve discovered a new strain of HIV, one that took nearly four decades to confirm. That’s because researchers needed to verify three occurrences of the unusual strain before they were able to report that it was, indeed, a separate HIV…
Both Twitter and Facebook made big announcements on Wednesday, as the social media companies seek to curb fake accounts, abuse in political ads, and the potential to spread fake news or incite violence through hate speech. Facebook announced it removed three Russia-linked networks of accounts, pages and groups that targeted…
The Wellcome Sanger Institute has responded to a British media report that it misused African DNA it acquired from the Stellenbosch University in South Africa, with the intent to sell it in a commercial application rather than use the DNA for research into African genetics and evolution. The allegations were…
Facebook’s latest move in seeking to address misinformation and political “fake news” on the African continent is to expand its efforts into 10 sub-Saharan countries, working in local languages – as well as with news outlets – to better monitor Facebook post content. The social media giant announced this week…
Five students from Kenya have been named as short-list finalists for the European Union’s prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, awarded for exceptional achievements in human rights. The five – Stacy Owino, Cynthia Otieno, Purity Achieng, Mascrine Atieno and Ivy Akinyi – developed an app to help young women…
Egyptians were experiencing some Internet disruptions on Sunday as protests against President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi continued into the weekend, with service interruptions that appeared to target news sites and social media messaging. NetBlocks.org, an organization that tracks shutdowns and disruptions across the globe, reported that BBC News and other news…
The Mail & Guardian is one of South Africa’s most widely respected news organizations, but now it’s reporting that it’s been censored following a June 2019 investigation into an oil deal involving South Sudan and the man who arranged it. The publication was taken offline on Friday by Internet service…
Kenya has joined the nations of Ghana and Malawi in administering a new malaria vaccine, with parts of the country participating in a pilot program offered in partnership with the World Health Organization. The vaccine known as RTS,S has taken 30 years to develop and so far is the only…
Scientists racing to save the northern white rhino say they’ve successfully created two embryos in the lab by using eggs from the last two remaining females and frozen sperm from deceased males. “The embryos are now stored in liquid nitrogen to be transferred into a surrogate mother in the near…
Seven nations on the African continent have something in common that the others don’t. They’re all signatories calling for a ban on “killer robots” and related fully autonomous weapons currently being developed in advanced nations. That’s according to the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which lists Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana,…
African leaders have completed a two-day conference in India, designed to boost economic opportunity and international partnership through education. The event in New Delhi, coordinated by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), saw education ministry staff from Ghana and South Africa join their Indian counterparts to discuss opportunities for training…