Curious enough not to ignore how tech innovation shapes human nature and power dynamics.
Washington, DC
Joined October 2015
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Addis Ababa, my home.
የሆዴን በሆዴ የአፌን በአንጉርጉሮ
እንዳልናገረው ቀኔ አይደል ዘንድሮ
youtu.be/6lOBdLtGgmw
Abel W. Sugebo ( ኃይለ ማርያም) retweeted
#DigitalPublicInfrastructure is changing how Africans access services, vote, and transact. But technical integration is moving faster than the safeguards meant to protect rights.
Our State of Internet Freedom in Africa 2026 report recommends:
✅ Governments: assess human rights risks before rollout, keep offline alternatives and end internet shutdowns.
✅ Oversight bodies: regularly audit ID databases and data exchange systems.
✅ Tech firms and telcos: carry out human rights due diligence.
✅ Funders: measure success by inclusion and remedy, not enrolment numbers.
✅ Civil society: engage early in DPI design and procurement.
Read the full report: tinyurl.com/5t3k94dp
#DigitalRights #InternetFreedomAfrica #DPI
CIPESA’s study of 11 African countries warns digital ID and public service systems could deepen exclusion without stronger governance, connectivity and human rights safeguards.
#DigitalIdentity #DPI
biometricupdate.com/202610/d…
Abel W. Sugebo ( ኃይለ ማርያም) retweeted
Today is #WorldEncryptionDay, and we’re proud to have contributed the Africa country research for the relaunched World Map of Encryption Laws and Policies by Global Partners Digital.
The map rates 100 countries on how far their laws restrict encryption and how well people are protected from abuse of those powers.
Across Africa, encryption keeps journalists, activists and ordinary users safe. Knowing how governments regulate it is key to resisting backdoors and surveillance overreach.
Join “Bans and Scans” at the #GlobalEncryptionDay Summit today at 18:00 EAT. Register: isoc.live/22176/
Explore the map: gp-digital.org/world-map-of-…
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would witness @NatnaelMekonne7 so brilliantly & mercilessly ridiculing @Jawar_Mohammed , lecturing him with such extraordinary eloquence, razor-sharp wit, & breathtaking articulation! I never saw this coming!
Abel W. Sugebo ( ኃይለ ማርያም) retweeted
The #FIFAfrica26 report, Navigating the Implications of AI on Digital Democracy in Africa, unveiled today in Mauritius 🇲🇺 studied how artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting civic space, digital rights, and democracy.
It covered 14 African countries (Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe)
Best wishes to Frehiwot Tamru, Ethiopia's new Minister of Innovation and Technology. @cipesaug's SIFA 2026 report is a timely benchmark: one shutdown can take down ID, payments and services at once. Using ICT as a political tool can deter growth. cipesa.org/wp-content/files/…
1/ In Jan 2021, Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry @GHessebon called reports of Eritrean troops in Tigray "false and unfounded." This week, Ethiopian officials say Eritrea's army is fighting there. Neither verdict came with public evidence. New report 🧵 informafrica.net/2026/10/08/…
5/ The truck images: @criticalthreats geolocated one and said date and identity were unverified. Within hours, that finding was misstated in both directions. Platforms should label what an image shows and where it came from, not just true or false.
6/ Full report, with recommendations for platforms, newsrooms and funders, a claim register and 48 sources: informafrica.net/2026/10/08/…
It has already started. Soon, mainstream media will be calling every small town in northern Ethiopia a “strategic city,” including Muja. 😂
Abel W. Sugebo ( ኃይለ ማርያም) retweeted
🛣️𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚🛣️
📍Third Stop: #JourneyThrough #Ethiopia 🇪🇹
The report on Ethiopia presented the paradox of #ArtificialIntelligence in a fragile state. On one hand, the government has aggressively placed AI at the heart of its #digitaltransformation, and on the other hand, these digital ambitions are unfolding in a deeply fragile sociopolitical landscape marked by armed conflict, arbitrary arrests, and a rapidly shrinking civic space. Consequently, AI acts as a double-edged sword which is offering developmental leaps while simultaneously providing new tools for #digitalauthoritarianism. Further insights include the following:
🟨With an estimated 65% of the population still offline and persistent infrastructure gaps, the rapid deployment of AI risks deepening existing inequalities. Rural communities, women, pastoralists, and persons with disabilities could be left further behind.
🟨 Generative AI, synthetic media, and deepfakes (including cloned voices of public figures) are widely used to fuel ethnic tensions, particularly in conflict-prone regions like Amhara and Oromia. Meanwhile, major platforms like @Meta rely on automated moderation algorithms that fail to comprehend Ethiopia’s low-resource languages, such as Afaan Oromo and Tigrinya. As a result, these systems routinely fail to moderate ethnic #hatespeech and incitement to violence, while simultaneously over-censoring and removing legitimate human rights documentation as "hate speech".
🟨 While the government heavily promotes the narrative of "sovereign AI" arguing that developing localised, local-language systems protects the country from foreign dependency and "#digitalcolonialism", the report argues this is a structural illusion. In reality, Ethiopia remains heavily dependent on foreign infrastructure and technology vendors, relying on Chinese telecommunications giants like @Huawei and @ZTE to build the backbone of its digital and surveillance networks, and foreign states for its military hardware.
🟨 Exclusion of #civilsociety remains a concern as #AI governance is completely monopolised by state institutions. Crucial policy decisions and consultation workshops are held "behind closed doors". There are no permanent advisory mechanisms to involve civil society, academia, youth, or linguistic minorities in shaping how these powerful technologies are regulated.
Here is the full State of Internet Freedom in Africa: Navigating the Implications of AI on Digital Democracy in #Ethiopia 2025 report 👉🏾bit.ly/StateofInternetFreedo…
#FIFAfrica26 #InternetFreedomAfrica
🛣️𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 🛣️
As we gear up for next month's Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (#FIFAfrica26), join us in a journey reflecting on the lessons learnt from the annual State of Internet Freedom in Africa report - a standout report released at every edition of the Forum since 2014.
The 2025 edition focused on Navigating the Implications of #ArtificialIntelligence on #digitaldemocracy across 14 African countries.
Here are six key insights from the report which remain true even a year later:
1⃣ The political environment is the crucial determinant of AI's trajectory. Strong democracies like #SouthAfrica, #Ghana, #Namibia, & #Senegal are more likely to set positive AI standards. Countries with lower democratic credentials like #Cameroon, #Egypt, #Ethiopia, & #Rwanda risk deploying AI to amplify #digitalauthoritarianism.
2⃣ AI development pace far outstrips regulatory readiness. Data protection authorities are under-resourced, under-staffed, and lack technical expertise to audit or govern complex AI systems.
3⃣ National AI strategies prioritise economic growth while neglecting human rights and accountability.
4⃣ Policy processes are often opaque and dominated by state actors with limited multistakeholder participation.
5⃣ AI-powered #surveillance is expanding without oversight, creating a chilling effect on freedoms of expression and assembly.
6⃣ AI-generated #disinformation is a pervasive and growing threat to electoral integrity, with deepfakes actively deployed during elections in countries like South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Namibia, and Senegal.
None of this has changed. The question is whether we will.
📄 Read the full report: bit.ly/StateOfInternetFreedo…
🌐Register for #FIFAfrica26: bit.ly/RegisterForFIFAfrica2…
Together, advancing #InternetFreedomAfrica
ALT Image of the various State of Internet Freedom in Africa report covers alongside a representation of a road to reflect the narrative of a journey.
Abel W. Sugebo ( ኃይለ ማርያም) retweeted
🚨 An Atrocity of Atrocities in Wollega!
Komos Aba Tadese, Administrator of the Endode Selassie Monastery in the Wollega Diocese, was forcibly taken from the monastery grounds by local security forces and brutally beaten to death in an extrajudicial killing.
In Wollega, innocent people are being targeted and slaughtered by government security forces simply because of their ethnicity and religion.
#Ethiopia #JusticeForAbaTadese #HumanRightsViolations #EOTC #Wollega #StopViolence
A nation Meles restructured sent drones to his hometown on his deathiversary. To call that insensitive to the suffering of the oppressed would be wrong, just as it would be wrong to see it as sympathy for the oldguards. It is simply how karma works.
How time flies?! Fourteen years since Meles’s passing. He was one of a kind, indeed! Whatever misgivings some might have had about his policies-no leader is immune to criticism- he did everything he could to live by every one of his principles and for good measure gave his all to everything he held dear.
May he rest in peace!
Thank you everyone who’s commenting on Aster’s newly remade album. I’ll keep my ears safe. The old one is good.
Good to know.
Starting today, @ForeignPolicy is lifting its paywall on ALL content. From the Iran war to the World Cup, read up on the biggest global stories—for free! 1/9
Abel W. Sugebo ( ኃይለ ማርያም) retweeted
Have you notice, @addisstandard did not say a word, despite the clear violations of free expression and artistic freedom on Teddy Afro. His songs have made shockwaves across Ethiopia even for BBC World to give him coverage.
