France goes after French-Algerian influencers

also ft AI and the WEF cybersecurity as it concerns Africa

and

Jan 18, 2025

CybAfriqué is a space for news and analysis on cyber, data, and information security on the African continent.

Hello everyone, I’m Olatunji Alameen, not to be mistaken with Olatunji Olaigbe. I’ve contributed to the newsletter through background research and resource gathering, but this is the first newsletter where I’m contributing directly as a writer.

In this week's newsletter, we explored France’s crackdown on French-Algerian influencers under charges of inciting violence and hate. We also took a drift to AI disruption of African cybersecurity, and what Botswana's improved data law means for the state of data protection in Africa.

Enjoy!

— Alameen

HIGHLIGHTS

France goes after French-Algerian influencers

France’s recent arrests of Algerian TikTok influencers have raised concern that France’s crackdown on Algerians may be a reprisal due to the strained diplomatic relationship between Paris and Algiers. Since the beginning of this year, six Algerian tiktokers have been subject to investigations by authorities or arrest for allegedly promoting hatred and violence against opponents of Algeria's government, inflaming tensions between Algiers and Paris. The accused were reportedly using their social media content to issue death threats and incite violence and hate against people.

The latest arrest was that of Algerian TikToker Sofia Benlemmane with over 300,000 followers on Thursday for charges of “incitement to commit a crime or offence” and “death threats by image,” among many more. Abdesslam Bazooka, who has 35,900 followers; and Laksas06, with 18,100 followers, have been arrested and placed into custody for further investigations.

Efforts from the government and further investigation led to the arrest of the account user, who operates under the name of Doualemn and identifies as Ami Boualem, who has 139,100 followers on TikTok was arrested for allegedly promoting violence on Tiktok after posting a video filmed in Arabic that called for "infliction of pain" on an Algerian anti-government protester, according to French media. However, according to a report from Montpellier's public prosecutor's office request, two interpreters watched the video and concluded that Naman called for a man in Algeria to be beaten but added that he did not say the words "kill him," which have been previously reported.

France recently expelled one of the arrested Algerian influencers back to Algeria but was rejected by the Algerian authorities, sparking diplomatic tension, which has now coloured the French campaign against online influencers inciting violence. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau accused Algeria of attempting to “humiliate France” following the rejection incidents, deepening the diplomatic tension between France and the African country.

Historically, France’s straining relationships with its former colonies across Africa have happened in the context of how social media use intersects with governance. In West and Central African francophone countries like Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and even more recently, Ivory Coast, years of information manipulation and digital maligning have played huge roles in the devolvement of those relationships. Geopolitically-driven information manipulation has thrived in the context of France’s fraught relationship with its former colonies, which is lined with exploitation and interference.

Political colouring aside, the developments in the arrests of online influencers play on the abstract use of cybercrime laws to exert power, which we treated as a third highlight in last week’s newsletter.

ICYMI: What does Meta's end of moderation mean for Africa?

AI and the WEF cybersecurity as it concerns Africa

The World Economic Forum released the Global Cybersecurity Outlook for 2025, highlighting key trends and threats that will shape the unfolding year. The report recognised the evolving complexities in cyberspace globally, typified by geopolitical tensions, emerging technologies, supply chain dependencies, and advanced cybercrime tactics powered by AI use.

For Africa especially, the general situation is not very far off from global realities, which is a notable development from previous reports where cyber inequity and low awareness were key themes for the African region. The report states geopolitical tension on the continent as a key intersection to cybersecurity, citing the destruction of infrastructure, power blackouts, and broader socio-political circumstances that breed cybercrime and espionage.

For example, the ongoing Sudan conflict and other pockets of uproar in African countries last year led to a shutdown of the internet, breakdown of power grids, and transportation routes for alternative power supply, creating several blackouts and downtimes. Africa also had a fair share of AI-powered cyberattacks, which led to an exponential increase in malware and ransomware attacks. AI especially has supercharged social engineering, making it easier for threat actors to deploy automated context-specific conversations against their targets.

A Kaspersky report says more than 70 per cent of organisations in Africa and Middle East regions have experienced more cyber attacks in the past year, with more than half of those attacks enhanced by AI. AI-powered attacks have been shown to be more powerful and can easily bypass the security system of an organisation.

On the flip side, stakeholders and organisations have also started merging cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Public and private-led capacity building initiatives across countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa are not only trying to leap bridge the continent’s gap in cybersecurity, but also strengthen that bridge against the disruption of cybersecurity by AI.

The WEF report noted that only 14% of organisations, mostly large organisations, multinationals and conglomerates, have a skilled workforce capable of addressing current cybersecurity challenges. African organizations ranked the second lowest level of cyber resilience, 36%.

An evolved data law takes effect in Botswana

A new and improved data protection law took effect in Botswana this week on January 14 2025, as the country entered a new era of protection of data subjects' information. Botswana had its first Data Protection Act in 2018 which was initially set to start implementation in 2021 before it was paused, heavily amended, and now repealed to produce the Data Protection Act of 2024.

One of the key differences is that the new act offers a broader scope and better explanations of terms, and consequently, the implementation of the laws. The new act also extended its scope to include automated and non-automated processing of personal data,

This development brings the number of African countries with working data regulations to 36 out of 55, although with varying implementation frameworks. This is progress for the continent, but also a slight disconnection from the regional data protection framework of the AU. Only 15 countries have ratified the Malabo Convention, which is the Continental cybersecurity framework. Some of the data protection laws being adopted in these countries do not align with the convention, posing a challenge to adoption.

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