On 13 November 2025, the Centre for Human Rights (CHR), Faculty of Law ,University of Pretoria, in partnership with UNESCO, successfully convened the first webinar of the Social Media 4 Peace (SM4P) Phase II initiative. Titled “Foundations of Content Governance and Digital Rights,” the session brought together 20 participants from academia and civil society to establish a conceptual and legal framework for addressing online harms. This inaugural session serves as a cornerstone for the project’s goal of raising awareness among global stakeholders to address harmful content while strictly safeguarding freedom of expression and access to information.

The webinar featured a panel of experts who contextualised the digital landscape within the South African and broader African experience. Belinda Matore, representing the CHR, opened the session by outlining how digital risks intersect with human rights debates in South Africa. She emphasized the project’s commitment to evidence-based advocacy and the urgent need for cross-sectoral coalitions to manage the complexities of the digital age. Her introduction framed the SM4P initiative as a critical intervention for fostering peace and information integrity through informed digital regulation.

The discussion on practical challenges was deepened by Zara Schroeder from Research ICT Africa, who unpacked the current landscape of online harms. Drawing from regional research, she highlighted the prevalence of disinformation networks, hate speech, and gendered harassment. A significant portion of her intervention focused on structural inequalities, noting that platform moderation teams are often inadequately resourced for African contexts. This uneven distribution of oversight, she argued, leaves African users more vulnerable to harms that are frequently overlooked by global tech policy.

Furthering the technical and legal discourse, Tendai Mbanje from the CHR introduced the core principles of rights-based content governance. He detailed the application of the proportionality test in moderation and explored emerging models for platform transparency and accountability. Mr. Mbanje specifically addressed the national challenges posed by South Africa’s linguistic diversity, noting that the low visibility of African languages in global platform policies hinders effective moderation. This technical grounding ensured that the conversation remained rooted in both empirical evidence and established human rights doctrine.

The insights gathered from this session have already begun to shape the trajectory of the SM4P programme. While attendance was smaller than anticipated, due to limited time to circulate the invitation and increase attendance, the depth of engagement provided high-quality reflections that are feeding directly into the development of the upcoming Cape Town workshop agenda. By establishing this foundational understanding of content governance, the CHR and UNESCO have set a clear path forward for subsequent activities, ensuring that upcoming policy briefs and academic publications are informed by the real-world digital challenges facing South Africa today.

For more information, please contact:

Belinda Matore 
Project Officer: Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit
Centre for Human Rights
br.matore@up.ac.za

Tendai Mbanje 
Project Officer: Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit
Centre for Human Rights
tendai.mbanje@up.ac.za