TOUGH JUSTICE : Why online content regulation is a blow to youth enterprise

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent two days at Capitol Hill earlier this month being grilled by US senators on his company’s role in the Cambridge Analytica saga, and the alleged elections interference that continues to dog US President Donald Trump.

If this hearing proved anything, it was that the internet is no longer that harmless, if it ever was.
It’s the reason many countries the world over appear challenged in coming up with cybercrime laws to protect the masses from the danger that the internet poses. By far, the most challenging situation the internet has offered, and partly because of its heavy repercussion, is the mining of data by political consulting firms or marketing firms, among others. It’s what got the young billionaire into trouble and booked him on Capitol Hill.
So it is understandable when the government takes interest in attempting to create some sort of order online, however futile. And on that note, I want to express that I am all in support of some level of internet regulation, but not to the extent reached in the Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations.
Gagging government critics
Many (rightly) see the regulations are part of a coordinated attempt at gagging government critics, but I will not dwell on this today.  Instead I will focus on the massive opportunity that millions of young people are being denied to access knowledge (not just information) and earn a living.
Let me begin with a story. About three years ago when my firm received funding to do the country’s first 3D-animated TV show, I needed to hire a few animators and illustrators. I started by publishing a job advert and quickly realised that it was the wrong approach.
The applications I received convinced me that the skill sets required to pull off our very ambitious project were lacking internally. So I started contacting animators from Kenya and Nigeria whose superb work was published online. In the course of this I was made aware that a few animators who had very little online presence, and this is how I was able to recruit locally.
The point here is that the regulations are creating unnecessary obstacles in publishing, which will only serve to deny our young people the visibility they need to not only earn their living from their skills, but also compete with their counterparts across the world who offer the same services.
Secondly, for a long time, there’s been a debate about the need to increase local content in our mainstream media channels. It’s fair to say the government has largely failed to regulate towards this end. But what’s more concerning is that digital media which somewhat fills the gap in local content is being rendered useless.
The number of bloggers who conveniently name themselves “TV” is very large in this day and time, and these are spread throughout the country. A quick look at YouTube data for Tanzania shows me that out of the top 30 channels in terms of views, representing slightly above 2 billion views, 16 are “entertainment news” channels.
These channels most likely draw their inspiration from Millard Ayo, a young radio presenter who runs arguably the most successful online media business in the country. He too began by disseminating entertainment news, but has grown to the point of beating mainstream media in gathering and reporting local news and events.
Massive blow
The new regulations are a massive blow to thousands of aspiring internet entrepreneurs who, like their role model, could have grown to have a valuable contribution to the media sector and the economy.
The new regulations are threatening to cut off a large number of young producers who are not just out there to earn a living, but are also helping us tell our stories. Without them, we continue to be a nation without its own narrative.
In the grand scheme of things, the goal of regulation should be to safeguard net neutrality and ensure all users are ripping maximum benefits from their online activities.