Facebook To Be Summonsed Before South Africa’s Parliament Over ‘Harmful Misinformation’ this marks that first time the social media giant has appeared before lawmakers in Africa.

Facebook has been called to appear before the South African Parliament on May 25, 2021 to explain what it is doing about the “harmful misinformation” spreading on its platform,

Facebook has been called to appear before South Africa’s Parliament this month to explain what it is doing about “harmful misinformation” spreading on its platform, marking the first time the social media giant has appeared before lawmakers in Africa.

Opposition MP Phumzile Van Damme says Facebook with appear before the Communications and Digital Technologies Committee on 25 May 2021.

“Facebook’s agreement to the meeting is historic and a source of pride for South Africa as a first in Africa, and one of a few countries in the world to successfully secure a meeting with Facebook. We commend Facebook for agreeing to the meeting which we hope will be constructive,” Van Damme told Stuff. [Disclosure: I am Stuff’s publisher.]

In an article, vocal opposition parliamentarian Phumzile Van Damme stated that, “the aim of discussions with Facebook will be to ensure that the interests of the people of South Africa are protected as well as upholding their constitutional right to freedom of speech. We will stand in opposition to any proposals that would curtail the right of South Africans to share their thoughts and opinions that fall under protected freedom of speech”.

“The reason for inviting Facebook was with the view of ascertaining what steps the tech giant will be taking in tackling harmful misinformation, particularly as we inch towards the 2021 Local Government Election. Facebook often tailors plans for countries ahead of elections to guard against harmful misinformation. We would like to see the same done for South Africa,” she added.

Along with concerns over misinformation, it will focus on South African users’ personal data being protected and “the beginning of discussions regarding the social media platform paying South African media houses for carrying their content as was recently successfully implemented in Australia”.

In February Van Damme said she was “summoning” Facebook – which has an office in the economic capital of Johannesburg – to appear before South African lawmakers to ascertain “what steps the tech giant will be taking in tackling harmful misinformation”.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2016 made a surprise trip to Lagos and Nairobi, where he said: “The thing that is striking is the entrepreneurial energy. This is where the future is going to be built”.

This week Van Damme said “the aim of discussions with Facebook will be to ensure that the interests of the people of South Africa are protected as well as upholding their constitutional right to freedom of speech. We will stand in opposition to any proposals that would curtail the right of South Africans to share their thoughts and opinions that fall under protected freedom of speech,” she said.

South Africa’s Constitution, which was implemented after Nelson Mandela was voted in as the country’s first democratic president in 1994, is considered one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. Current South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was the chief negotiator for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in a landmark deal concluded with the Apartheid government, run by the then National Party.

Meanwhile, the South African Information Regulator recently announced that it was seeking legal advice to get Facebook owned messaging app WhatsApp to revise its privacy policy to the standard used in the EU as the country’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) has a similar privacy regime to the EU. It appears that citizens of the EU would receive significantly higher protection than South African citizens.

However, only 24 out of 53 countries in Africa have adopted #DataPrivacy #DataProtection laws!