Like much of the rest of the world, Namibia too came under a total economic and social shutdown, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Cracks within the education system would soon be exposed by COVID-19, and the detrimental effects they pose to the right to development and access to knowledge, as set out in Principle 7 of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms, would become apparent.

This article highlights that certain conditions have aligned to present a unique opportunity to recalibrate existing efforts, shift narratives and develop new standards that can enable and reflect genuine equality and inclusion on the internet. This article suggests that now, more than ever, is the time to ensure that we have a feminist internet. The article concludes with recommendations on suggested requirements for feminist ICT regulations.

In this article, Charley Lewis examines how policy makers, regulators and service providers responded to the COVID-19 explosion. The focus is specifically on the ICT sector, on telecoms and the internet, looking at some of the slew of ICT sector-specific measures, ranging from public service messaging, though temporary spectrum assignment and zero-rating of educational and health websites, to those actions intended to make access and services more affordable.