As the world marks International Internet Day on 29 October 2026, the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria (the Centre), reflects on the profound ways the internet has changed how we live, learn, communicate and participate in society. For some, it has opened doors to knowledge and connection that once seemed out of reach. For others, it has become a space where harassment, hate speech, disinformation and violations of privacy threaten their safety and freedom. This day offers an opportunity not only to celebrate what the internet makes possible, but also to consider our collective responsibility to make it a space where everyone can participate freely, safely and on equal terms.
The internet's reach is extraordinary. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), approximately six billion people were using the internet in 2025, representing 74% of the world's population. Yet, 2.2 billion people remained offline. The divide is not simply between those who have a connection and those who do not. It is also between those who can afford reliable, meaningful access and those whose access is expensive, slow, insecure or limited by a lack of digital skills.
For many people, the internet is now an essential route to education, employment, healthcare, public services and civic participation. A student can attend a lecture from another continent. A small business can reach customers beyond its neighbourhood. A journalist can investigate wrongdoing, while a community can organise around a public concern that might otherwise go unnoticed. During emergencies, online networks can help families find one another, communities share urgent information and humanitarian organisations coordinate assistance.
For many Africans, digital technologies have also created possibilities that geographical distance, limited resources and inadequate infrastructure once made difficult to access. A farmer can consult weather information, a young entrepreneur can market products across borders, and a citizen can use online platforms to demand answers from public institutions.
The internet has made information easier to find and share. It has given people new ways to tell their own stories rather than relying entirely on others to tell those stories for them. It has enabled communities to organise, exposed abuses of power and created spaces for voices historically excluded from mainstream public debate. These are not small achievements. They shape human rights and democracy.
But access to information is not the same as access to reliable information. The ability to speak is not the same as the ability to speak without fear. And similarly, having a digital account is not the same as having meaningful control over one's digital life.
The same platforms that help people find opportunities can expose them to fraud, harassment, hate speech, disinformation, surveillance and the misuse of personal information. A false claim can travel through hundreds of thousands of accounts before a correction reaches even a fraction of that audience. A photograph shared without consent can follow a person for years. A threatening message may take seconds to send but leave its recipient afraid long after the screen has gone dark.
These harms do not affect everyone equally. Women and girls, journalists, human rights defenders, public-interest researchers, political dissenters and members of marginalised communities may face particular risks when they participate online. Women who speak publicly can be targeted through coordinated harassment, sexualised abuse, manipulated images and the circulation of private information. Journalists and human rights defenders may face threats intended not only to harm them personally, but also to discourage others from speaking out.
Children face their own set of challenges, including cyberbullying, grooming, sexual exploitation, exposure to harmful content and the collection of personal data before they fully understand what it means to share it. The African Union's Child Online Safety and Empowerment Policy recognises that protecting children requires more than responding to individual incidents. It calls for stronger institutions, appropriate laws, responsible business practices, education, support systems and cooperation across borders.
There is also a broader democratic concern. When false information is deliberately spread, public debate can become harder to navigate. When hate speech targets people because of their nationality, race, religion or other characteristics, online hostility can reinforce exclusion and contribute to real-world intimidation and violence. When digital platforms make decisions about what people see, whose voices receive visibility and what content is removed, those decisions can shape public conversation in profound ways.
The answer, however, cannot be to treat every difficult or controversial expression as harmful, or to assume that restricting speech is the same as protecting people. Measures intended to address online harm can themselves become tools of censorship if they are vague, disproportionate or applied without transparency and accountability.
A safer internet must therefore also be a free internet. Protecting people from violence and abuse must go hand in hand with protecting freedom of expression, access to information, privacy and the right to participate in public life.
As the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) makes clear in its Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms, addressing disinformation and hate speech requires a multistakeholder approach that keeps freedom of expression and the right to information at its centre.
The challenge is not to choose between safety and freedom. It is to build systems that protect both.
For Africa, the promise of the internet is immense, but the inequalities surrounding access remain stark. The ITU's 2025 estimates indicate that only 36% of Africa's population used the internet, compared with 74% globally. The figures also reveal a substantial gender gap: 40% of men in Africa were online, compared with 31% of women. The urban-rural divide is even more pronounced, with internet use estimated at 55% in urban areas and just 21% in rural areas.
As such, the future of the internet cannot be discussed only in terms of innovation, artificial intelligence or the next generation of digital platforms. For millions of people, the more immediate questions are whether they can afford data, whether a reliable connection reaches their community, whether online services are accessible to persons with disabilities, and whether information is available in languages they understand.
Nor is the challenge simply to bring more people online. It is to ensure that people can use the internet meaningfully, safely and on fair terms.
Africa must also be able to shape the rules governing its digital future. Who controls the infrastructure on which public services depend? Who holds and processes people's data? Who determines the terms on which digital platforms operate? How can African governments protect their citizens without undermining the rights those governments are obliged to uphold? And how can African countries participate in shaping global digital governance rather than simply adopting decisions made elsewhere?
These questions connect digital rights to sovereignty and human dignity. Digital development should expand people's choices and strengthen public institutions, not deepen existing dependencies or leave critical decisions entirely in the hands of powerful private actors.
In South Africa, these questions are especially pressing. Digital platforms can strengthen constitutional democracy by enabling public participation, facilitating access to information and giving people a space to challenge injustice. They can also become channels through which xenophobia, racism, gender-based abuse and disinformation spread, deepening tensions that already exist in society.
The Centre is part of the Social Media 4 Peace (SM4P) Coalition in South Africa, a multisectoral network bringing together civil society organisations, media actors, academic institutions and regulatory bodies to promote safer, more inclusive digital spaces. Through this coalition, the Centre contributes to collective efforts to address harmful online content while protecting freedom of expression and access to information. The coalition's work recognises that online hostility cannot be addressed by technology or law alone. It also requires public education, responsible leadership, evidence-based interventions, meaningful dialogue and a commitment to the dignity of every person.
On International Internet Day, the Centre for Human Rights calls on governments, digital platforms, civil society, media, educational institutions and internet users to turn the promise of a free, open and safe internet into a shared commitment and a daily practice.
We urge governments to uphold human rights in digital policy and law; platforms to act transparently and responsibly; institutions to invest in digital inclusion and public education; and civil society to continue holding power to account. We encourage every internet user to pause before sharing unverified information, reject hate and dehumanisation, respect other people's privacy, and speak up when others are targeted.
The technology itself does not determine which future we will have. Our choices, our laws, our institutions and our collective willingness to protect one another will help determine that future.
An internet for everyone must also be an internet that works for everyone.
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