31/07/2025
Zambia đżđ˛ has the worst social media Space regulations in Southern Africa.
Here's what you need to know:
⢠Zambia is the only country in Southern Africa with the most unregistered social media platforms that mine people's information, in the presence of government authorities.
⢠Today, Zambia has the highest number of mobile apps that register themselves as loan platforms, violating international monetary policies and customer rights. Over 90% of which demand permission to access your entire phone to use their platform.
⢠Zambia is the only country in Southern Africa whose citizens have been victims of mass social media scams because unverified platforms register themselves with the government and then vanish with people's hard-earned resources.
⢠In less than two years, Zambians have become Africa's most victims of social media investment platforms that present themselves as registered, trusted, and regulated by law enforcement agencies, having top government documents given to them by government agencies, leading to poor Zambians losing millions in investments.
⢠Zambia doesn't have a serious body that regulates the national social media space to ensure safety and protection from exploitative platforms.
⢠Zambia is the only country in Southern Africa with the highest number of government-registered gambling websites and apps, almost every street has a betting Booth in Zambia.
⢠In 2025 alone, Zambia has experienced excessive abuse of social media through violations of freedom of speech, with insults that have even reached an extent of targeting the President of Zambia, but nothing serious has been done. Exposed sexual content and the use of hate speech in the name of freedom has become the order of the day.
⢠Today, Zambia is one of the countries farthest from being monetized on YouTube, Facebook, and other top-earning platforms due to poor regulations that give platform owners the power to monetize the country without fear of facing the law. Facebook and YouTube are governed by community guidelines and monitored by fact-checkers. If a country has the worst social media usage, like Zambia, whose viral content is made up of insults and hate speech, online platforms will flag the entire country and under-rank it as not suitable for monetization. On the other hand Countries that produce content that goes viral without community violations are highly ranked for monetization.
I have never seen Zambian content go viral country-wide or across the boarder without insults and sÂŁxually âŹxplicit in nature. This sends a very wrong message to the community guidelines algorithms that flag the country as unsafe for monetization.
What should the Zambian government do?
For example, when installing an app in Zambia, you're asked to give permission to the App to access your contacts, messages, or phone system. This allows the app to know how many people you talk to, how many apps you have, and read all your messages on your phone. In short, you give your whole privacy to the app owners, you ignorantly allow them to access sensitive information from your phone. You're in d@nger, guys; be very careful. They know everyone you call and what you discuss. Africa, open your eyes; it's crazy how we've exposed ourselves.
Another culprit is online loan apps, most of their Apps are used to gather people's information and sell it without your knowledge.
The solution is to ban online loan platforms that demand to read personal information. It's shameful how the Zambian government allows this and gives out government licenses. The government should establish an intelligence agency focused on the internet, as ZICTA is doing nothing to monitor this issue. They're just informing the public to be aware, not dealing with the problem.
Today, Zambia is not monetized on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Boomplay, yet they run ads everywhere making money in your country without benefiting the locals who watch them and without paying local musicians or creators. You want to know why? Poor government regulations that have failed to protect its people. I support the cyber bill, but it's nothing without a committed agency. ZICTA is ineffective in addressing this issue. Wake up, Zambia; what's wrong with you? Your neighbors like Zimbabwe đżđź, Tanzaniađšđż, and Congo đ¨đŠ are monetized due to better policies guiding their social space.
Also, access to opening bank accounts should be made easy. Today, less than 30% of Zambians have bank accounts, and not even 5% of the 30% can order things online; It's like Zambia is 100 years behind. More work needs to be done; otherwise, governments will continue to come and go without doing anything serious. I have Spoken đ¤
Written By Luckson F Mvula
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