Digital Transformation in Africa: Is Democracy Under Threat?

Introduction

The future of democracy in the digital age is the subject of many scholarly, civic, and civil debates globally. According to the Council of Europe (2021), significant efforts have been made since the 1950s to modernise governance to meet some of the historical challenges linked to poorly functioning states. Tar (2010) argues that this is particularly true for many African countries often classified as conflict-prone societies characterised by continued civil wars and power struggles. These countries often share a traumatic past marked by long periods of exploitative colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism, and apartheid (Khapoya, 2012; Hodges, 1972). Furthermore, they argue that attempts to deal with the democratic development impasse in Africa have also suffered considerably due to a lack of political will, a key ingredient needed for success. The result is often violent service delivery protests, widespread corruption, and a general crisis of political legitimacy especially at the local government level closest to the people (Millstein, 2010).

This chapter aims to answer the question of whether digital transformation strengthens or weakens democracy in Africa. The potential of digital tools such as social media and others to invigorate citizen engagement, promote transparency and accountability and enhance the provision of public services has been recognised by many scholars including Soriano (2013), Oreskovich (2011), Shirky (2008), and Diamond (2010). Others including Castells (2012) have adopted a more cautious approach specifically arguing that social media for instance, potentially enhances access to information, enables citizen interactions, and facilitates discussions and opinion formation only under certain conditions. Current literature also shows that the rise of digital technologies especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic created new opportunities to meet the challenges faced by democracy. Increased Internet connectivity in many African countries also means that people can now interact with politicians or public officials from the comfort of their own homes without fear of public judgment or ridicule (Rumbul, 2015) in liberal societies.

Despite these gains, there are general concerns about the wider lack of access to digital tools and platforms in many African countries, the lack of affordability of digital-based solutions, the lack of knowledge and skills to use digital tools, biases, and exclusions from technology based on gender and race on the African continent. Furthermore, Rumbul (2015) also cautions that there is little evidence by way of research to demonstrate the real-world impact of digital platforms. She argues that current research projects on the subject although robust, do not answer the key basic question of who uses digital technology and why. This also begs the question, how safe is online data in the hands of private actors in democratic societies? Private actors, in particular giant Internet companies and social media platforms, increasingly play a central role in the public sphere in Africa and abroad as providers of infrastructure, content creators, and distributors. This therefore means that big tech companies play a gatekeeping role, selecting and curating information that is shared on social platforms, targeting specific audiences, and potentially influencing public opinion, political debate, and ultimately electoral results (Council of Europe, 2021).