The report examines the interplay between technology and elections in Africa during the so-called Year of Democracy, when at least 20 African countries were scheduled to go to the polls. The unprecedented increase in internet and mobile phone penetration rates, coupled with the enhanced digitalisation programmes, including the adoption of technology in electoral processes such as the use of biometric voter registration and verification applications by different governments had raised a lot of promise for better outcomes due to the anticipated increased transparency, efficiency and affordance that technology would lend to the electoral processes especially in 2024. While highlighting the growing influence of technology in elections, the study documents that much of the deployment has been characterised by risks and pitfalls where the majority of authoritarian governments have selectively deployed technology to extend their stay in power.

Social media platforms such as Facebook and X are often accused of deploying minuscule resources and measures in content moderation in Africa, relative to investments in the US and Europe. The platforms often heavily rely on algorithms for content moderation and fail to hire sufficient numbers of African content moderators and take a long time to respond to reported harmful content.