External publications

Moderating digital communities in hybrid governance contexts: refugees' digital inclusion and communication in Nairobi

Martin-Shields, Charles
External Publications (2024)

in: Nicole Stremlau / Clara Voyvodic Casabó (eds.), Technology and governance beyond the state: the rule of non-law, Milton Park: Routledge (forthcoming)

ISBN: 978-1-03-269299-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032693026-9

Digital governance and the regulation of internet services for consumers is often focused on the rights of those who are legally resident in a country, or at least officially sanctioned visitors. Such regulation can, however, lead to contradictory, exclusionary outcomes for refugees, who often lack the legal identification and residence status necessary to acquire local mobile phone and internet accounts. Since 2008, the Kenyan government has implemented increasingly stringent identification rules in this regard. Given the volume of refugees living irregularly in Nairobi, policing their adherence Kenya’s internet and telecommunications laws is impractical. In a space where formal law and regulation often goes unenforced, but the risk of enforcement remains ever-present, refugee communities have created their own methods of accessing digital infrastructure and moderating its use. Drawing on qualitative data from refugees in Nairobi, this chapter explores how, despite exclusionary digital regulatory and legal structures, these communities find ways to access and moderate the extra-legal use of digital infrastructure.