From platform jumping to self-censorship: internet freedom, social media, and circumvention practices in Zambia. Issue 3 (3rd July 2017) - Parks, Lisa
ABSTRACT: This article describes the complex media environment of urban Zambia based on qualitative interviews with 42 active ICT and social media users in Lusaka. After a contextual discussion of media censorship and Internet freedom, the article draws upon interview data to delineate four circumvention practices: (1) platform jumping; (2) anonymity; (3) self-censorship; and (4) negotiation of legal challenges. Rather than approach circumvention as a set of techniques disseminated from the information capitals of the world to those in the "global south, " this study approaches it as a set of cultural practices that emerges within particular sociohistorical conditions and platforms of communication.