A group of traders are threatening to sue the Uganda Communications Commission if it does not reopen Facebook within two weeks.
The notice states that the traders have lost approximately 3,874,000 clients who were active Facebook subscribers in Uganda at the time of the closure, along with 2.9 billion potential clients in the global market.
Per Luyimbazi Nalukoola, the lawyer representing the traders, the continued closure of Facebook has resulted in significant financial losses for its members, estimated at around UGX 66 billion, it also extends to their supply chain, affecting 650 boda bodas, 88 lorries and pickups, and 180 taxis.
Ugandans now use VPNs to access Facebook, while many have stopped using the platform altogether.

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Tech firms in the UK will have to take more responsibility for the content on their platform.
The UK government has passed an Online Safety Bill that places immense responsibility on tech giants to ensure children’s safety in the digital world.
Social media platforms must ensure that age limits are enforced and that children are protected from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content.
The Act also creates new offenses, like addressing cyber-flashing and deepfake pornography, which utilises AI technology.
Companies that fail to adhere to these regulations would face fines of up to £18 million ($21.7 million) or 10% of their annual global earnings, potentially amounting to billions of pounds for major corporations.

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Nigerian commercial bank, Fidelity Bank, has quashed its qualms with neobanks and reinstated customer transfers to OPay, Moniepoint, Palmpay and Kuda.
Fidelity claimed that the removal was due to ongoing upgrades, other sources stated that it was due to KYC violations from the neobanks.
Neobanks saysthat they had been in contact with the commercial bank to resolve all concerns. The reinstatement however was also due to one regulator, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, expressing displeasure at Fidelity’s move.

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Paddy Cosgrave has stepped down as CEO of Web Summit, the 14-year-old conference business that he cofounded and which has gone on to host one of Europe’s biggest annual tech events, along with four other events around the globe.
Following a week of controversy surrounding comments Cosgrave made about Israel and Palestine.
The conference organizers say they will be appointing a new CEO as soon as possible and that Web Summit 2023 in Lisbon will go ahead as planned.
The move comes on the heels of a series of remarks from Cosgrave in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which set off a chain of angry responses from Israelis and increasingly a wider swath of people throughout the technology community.

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Sony has launched the Sony Innovation Fund to support the growth of entertainment startups on the continent.
Sony will invest about $10 million in seed to early-stage startups across gaming, music, movie and content distribution sectors.
Gen Tsuchikawa, CEO of Sony Ventures, says that in addition to the fund’s seed and early-stage investment strategy, it will offer follow-on investments to its portfolio companies.
Sony is also collaborating with the International Finance Corporation, the largest global development institution focused on the private sector.
The partnership will support the growth of the entertainment industry in Africa by leveraging the strengths of both parties.

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Kippa, the Nigerian fintech, which provides bookkeeping and finance management tools for small businesses, is discontinuing its agency banking business, KippaPay.
The startup also plans to lay off 40 employees associated with the product.
The company declared that KippaPay would be discontinued starting November 15. Sources also claim layoff notices have been sent out to affected staff, with their final day set for November 30.
The company however, says the decision to discontinue KippaPay is part of a strategic effort to streamline its product offerings and focus on the most financially viable and successful aspects of its business.

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The World Bank is flexing Kenya’s data protection laws. The international financial organisation suggested changes to the Kenyan Data Protection Act of 2019, advising the Kenyan government against the localisation of data.
The global lender has asked Kenya to revoke a law that forces companies to store sensitive personal data on servers located within the country.
The World Bank says the law is limiting cross-border trade in digital services.
It’s asking Kenya to upgrade its current Data Protection Act and adopt compatible and interoperable standards. It also adviced the scrapping of data localisation requirement for the Kenya’s Health Information System Policy.

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Amazon, the e-commerce giant will launch its online shopping service in South Africa in 2024. South Africa will become the second African country, after Egypt, to host a locally-dedicated Amazon shopping website.
Amazon says that independent sellers in South Africa could register their businesses on its marketplace website—Amazon.co.za—starting next year.
The launch of Amazon’s service comes at a time when South Africa has seen a sharp rise in online shopping after the pandemic brought an opportunity for e-commerce to finally take hold and contribute meaningfully to traditional sales.
Amazon’s platform in South Africa is still being finalised, as it must comply with local competition laws requiring online retailers to separate their retail and marketplace businesses.

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The country’s Competition Commission has launched a Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry to scrutinise the distribution of media content on South African digital platforms.
The inquiry follows a complaint lodged by Publisher Support Services in 2021, an industry association representing several South African news publishers.
PSS has argued that the transition to digital news consumption and advertising has had a negative impact on news media businesses, with many seeing a decline in advertising revenue and an increase in costs.
The investigation will specifically assess how these markets affect the online presence and competitive stance of smaller news entities, such as community and African language news outlets.
It will also evaluate the variety of news accessible to the public; search engines, social media sites, video-sharing platforms, news aggregators, and ad-tech market participants will all be under scrutiny.

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Vodacom agreed to pay a R1 million fine levied by South Africa’s National Consumer Tribunal.
Vodacom violated the Consumer Protection Act by imposing substantial penalties on customers who wished to cancel their fixed-term contracts.
These penalties amounted to 75% of the remaining contract balance, effectively preventing customers from exercising their right to terminate their contracts early.
The Consumer Protection Act in South Africa allows subscribers to cancel such contracts before their designated end dates, provided they give a 20-day notice to the network operator and are subject to a reasonable cancellation fee.

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