The 10th edition of the Africa Web Festival opened its doors on November 22 at the Palais de la Culture in Treichville, Ivory Coast, bringing together institutional representatives and digital players.
Designed and organized around the theme "Emergence of a well-trained African digital citizen," the event aimed to address the issue of web regulation in an era where digital media is proliferating and governments are expressing a need to regulate the information that circulates.
For this edition, the AWF aimed to explore all the opportunities and challenges inherent in the evolution of the digital landscape on the African continent. In fact, the HACA in Côte d'Ivoire recently took up the issue, adopting the very first agreement aimed at regulating social media on national territory, in agreement with the community of bloggers and influencers.
In a recent interview with Adweknow, Rita Pascale Kwaminan, President of the Association of Bloggers of Côte d'Ivoire, said: "If we aspire to a fair and equitable society, we must put in place effective legal mechanisms that protect the rights of every citizen. The web, which has become a platform for ordinary citizens to express themselves, must have a minimum set of rules. Côte d'Ivoire has nearly 7 million social media users. Given the impact that bloggers, activists, and influencers can have on the behavior of internet users, regulation is essential in the world of content creators."
According to an official statement from the HACA and data published by Digital Discovery in February 2023 on key figures for social media in Côte d'Ivoire, the number of social media users in the country stood at 5.10 million in January 2023. This figure was equivalent to 17.9% of the total population.