Burkina Faso closely follows Egypt and Côte d'Ivoire

The Minister of Communication, Culture, Arts and Tourism, Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo answers last week on the question of legal supervision which limits the harmful effects of freedom of expression.

There are many press and information regulation institutions in Burkina Faso. However, we can identify some weaknesses inherent in the system.

Among them, we can note the non-mastise in the identification of telephone networks subscribers, the absence of a consultation framework between digital actors, or the low collaboration with GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft).

The Burkinabè Minister of Communication claims, however, that there is a suitable legal framework implemented by teams competent in the matter.

To go further in this logic, the government is working on a project of reform texts on press freedom which will soon be transmitted in the form of recommendations to the Legislative Assembly.

Control will be at the heart of these new orientations, and in particular on the Facebook social network. Indeed, one of the ideas will concern the reinforced control of the Facebook pages bringing together a large number of subscribers. This provision has already been the subject of laws voted in Côte d'Ivoire and Egypt.

Is freedom of expression on social networks threatened?

If a platform control is already in place to combat hate speech and discriminating, states wishing to control the content disseminated on social networks send one message to Internet users.

Restriction of access to Facebook in Burkina: "The national interest must be above our particular interests" (government) - Lefaso.net
For more than a week, access to Facebook has experienced a restriction (it is impossible to access it from mobile data). Arrested on the subject, to (...)
Lefaso.net

In general, Africans are rather favorable to the impact of social media on their daily lives. It is noted in particular on their perception of political subjects.

Indeed, according to a study by AfroBarometer dating from 2022:
“The vast majority of respondents say that social media informs users about policy (89%) and contribute to people's political empowerment (73%). On the other hand, they believe that social media predispose people to believe more easily in false information (75%) ". Source: AfroBarometer, 2022.

Africans are therefore perfectly lucid on drifts related to social networks. Reinforced control on the part of states could send a negative message in terms of respect for freedom of expression. Hopefully that she does not follow the steps of her big sister the freedom of the press that suffers on the continent.