On 10 February 2026, regulators, election management bodies, policymakers, and civil society representatives from Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia convened at the University of Pretoria for a Sub-Regional Capacity-Building Workshop on the Governance of Digital Platforms.
Convened by Research ICT Africa (RIA) in partnership with UNESCO, the workshop formed part of an ongoing regional initiative to operationalise the UNESCO Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms in the region.
Held on the margins of the 2026 International Conference on Digital Platform Governance, the engagement moved decisively beyond abstract principle and into the institutional realities facing the region.
In addition to its immediate sub-regional focus, the workshop situated Southern African regulatory developments within broader continental processes, particularly those associated with the African Union and evolving digital governance frameworks linked to the Global Digital Compact. Participants noted that aligning national approaches with these emerging global and continental agendas will be critical to strengthening regulatory coherence and enhancing Africa’s collective bargaining power in engagements with global platform companies.
Human rights as an anchor
One theme resonated throughout the day: human rights remain the most durable foundation for governing digital platforms. Participants consistently affirmed that a rights-based approach provides legitimacy, coherence, and adaptability, even as technologies, business models, and risks evolve.
“The principles remain durable despite rapid technological change,” one delegate observed. “They can still apply as AI systems evolve.” Participants further emphasised that these principles are firmly rooted in existing regional legal instruments, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, thereby reinforcing their applicability within domestic constitutional orders.
The UNESCO Guidelines were widely recognised as a credible normative framework, grounding platform governance in freedom of expression, privacy, equality, due process, transparency, and accountability.
Yet participants were equally clear that principles alone are insufficient.
The implementation gap
While the Guidelines were described as “aspirational” and “fantastic instruments,” the real test lies in domestication and enforcement.
Their non-binding nature, coupled with limited translation into national legal frameworks, constrains their practical impact. Across discussions, a central tension emerged: Southern African states have strong constitutional protections for fundamental rights, but these have not yet been translated into clear, enforceable duties for digital platforms and their algorithmic systems.
In practical terms, this gap is evident in the absence of platform-specific regulatory provisions addressing issues such as algorithmic accountability, content moderation transparency, and systemic risk mitigation. While some jurisdictions have advanced data protection regimes, including oversight bodies such as South Africa’s Information Regulator, participants noted that equivalent institutional mechanisms across the region remain uneven in both capacity and mandate. As a result, enforcement remains inconsistent, particularly in cross-border digital environments.
In other words, the legal foundations exist. Platform-specific obligations do not.
Discussions reflected that Guidelines are good instruments; however, the challenge remains implementation.
The friction of fragmented mandates
A second critical insight concerned institutional design.
Responsibility for platform governance remains dispersed across telecommunications regulators, media authorities, data protection offices, cybersecurity agencies, and electoral bodies. No single entity exercises systemic oversight in participating countries.
“There are overlaps, duplication, and public confusion,” a participant noted, pointing to regulatory fragmentation during election periods, precisely when digital risks intensify.
Many institutions continue to operate under legacy frameworks designed for traditional ICT or broadcast environments. These laws often fail to account for the scale, power, opacity, and algorithmic mediation of contemporary platforms. Participants further observed that this fragmentation weakens the ability of regulators to respond effectively to complex issues such as disinformation, coordinated inauthentic behaviour, and cross-platform amplification.
“How can something be regulated if it is not understood?” one delegate asked, calling for multidisciplinary regulatory teams that include data scientists and technical specialists alongside legal experts. There was broad agreement that institutional reform must be accompanied by sustained investment in technical capacity, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and digital forensics.
The transparency deficits
Participants also highlighted the structural imbalance between individual African states and global platform companies.
“Platforms are not transparent at all,” a regulator remarked, referencing limited disclosure around risk mitigation, moderation systems, and data practices.
Jurisdictional claims, uneven engagement across markets, and dependence on platform cooperation further complicate enforcement. These asymmetries reinforce the importance of regional coordination, through African Union processes, SADC mechanisms, and emerging frameworks linked to the African Continental Free Trade Area. Participants emphasised that coordinated regional approaches could strengthen negotiating power, harmonise regulatory expectations, and reduce the risk of regulatory arbitrage by platform companies.
Shaping a sub-regional toolkit
The workshop directly informs the development of a Sub-Regional Toolkit for regulators and civil society. Participants emphasised that the toolkit must prioritise feasible, country-level traction rather than abstract guidance, while remaining adaptable to diverse institutional contexts across the region.
Four practical focus areas emerged:
- Protection of personal information, with an emphasis on translating data protection principles into enforceable platform obligations and strengthening cooperation between national regulators.
- Election integrity guidance, including the development of early warning systems, coordinated risk assessment, and clear protocols for inter-agency collaboration during electoral periods.
- Access to information and transparency measures, aimed at clarifying disclosure obligations for platforms and enhancing regulatory oversight of content moderation and algorithmic systems.
- Safeguards for vulnerable users, with clearer definitions and differentiated protections for children, women, journalists, migrants, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ communities, particularly in relation to online harms and targeted harassment..
Across all themes, enforcement was identified as the central cross-cutting concern, with participants calling for clearer accountability mechanisms, stronger sanctions for non-compliance, and enhanced judicial oversight.
From norms to local pathways
The workshop concluded with a shared recognition: Southern Africa does not lack principles. It lacks coordinated implementation pathways.
Human rights provide the normative anchor, , but realising their potential in the digital environment requires alignment between constitutional protections and platform-specific duties, between fragmented institutional mandates and coherent oversight, and between national efforts and regional leverage.
Participants further underscored the importance of embedding these efforts within ongoing global processes, including UNESCO Internet for Trust Initiative and the Global Digital Compact, in order to ensure that African perspectives are reflected in the evolving architecture of global digital governance.
As one delegate summarised, “The principles are there. The task now is coordination, capacity, and political will.”
The insights generated in Pretoria will feed directly into the finalisation of the Sub-Regional Toolkit and ongoing regional engagements, with a view to strengthening regulatory coherence, enhancing institutional capacity, and advancing a rights-based approach to digital platform governance across Southern Africa.
