Social media is a daily staple, but it also poses complex ethical dilemmas. Balancing free speech with the fight against misinformation, hate speech, and harassment is a critical challenge.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has begun talks with a Chinese company to implement a social media surveillance system. The agreement was signed on Wednesday by Augustin Kibassa Maliba, the DRC’s Minister of Posts, Telecommunications, and Digital Economy during the China-Africa Cooperation Forum.

While details are limited on the specifics of that agreement, the government likely aims to regulate online content in response to disinformation, hate speech, and other harmful activities. The DRC's current sociopolitical climate, including armed conflict and tensions with Rwanda, has created fertile ground for misinformation.

According to an analysis by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), this “information war” is having severe impacts on national cohersion. 

According to DataReportal, the DRC had 6.45 million active social media users as of January 2024, a growth of 37.2% from the previous year. Of these users, 37.2% were women and 62.8% were men. Facebook was the dominant platform, followed by TikTok (4.44 million users), Facebook Messenger (1.15 million), Instagram (670,000), LinkedIn (620,000), and X (formerly Twitter, 253,000). This growing user base has raised the stakes for managing the flow of information online in the DRC.