Is a warning today that governments around the world are increasingly watching what proposed doing on social media in its annual report on Internet Freedom the u. S. Based in geo Freedom House ses governments all spending millions by Sophisticated Technology to monitor behavior online now in africa the culprits law and uganda kenya and nigeria now in addition to surveillance there is also the restriction of Online Activity now heres a snapshot of Internet Freedom on the continent according to Freedom House of the 11 Subsaharan African countries that were surveyed ethiopia and sudan ranked the worst with 100 points being the Perfect School not some bob way was also singled out in the report its a country that has lost rules making it legal to monitor peoples Online Activity where government critics have been charged and the fake news and hate speech laws and way of the internet has been shut down but people they say a major the. To Internet Freedom is that costs are so high the price of daisies is fodder for each for the evidence about when its now in legs you know we have good bread and bust but the issues. Buying now seems just like you can you can you can do without it prices rise daily but people salaries dont go up in tandem so theres a lot of restrictions in terms of the Internet Access that people have this is what was one of the countries where the data is exposed and the way that the government always demonizes anything that comes out of social media in terms of deters people from expressing themselves online is no freedom because you find that once you see something on the internet you are subject to be attacked by you know the state and i think the people that i should be targeted for that they continue to go to the internet if so i think its like those produced up in general have been my guest today is Isabel Lindsay a from afraid of house she specializes in africa welcome to date of the africa isabelle so were talking about this surveillance on social media in the african qantas just give us an overview who exactly is being monitored on social media. Hi great to be here thank you so much so our new freedom on the net report has found evidence of social media surveillance problem programs in kenya south Africa Nigeria uganda and angola and to give a sense of the kind of scale of programs that were talking about nigeria for example in their 20000. 00 budget included an allocation for a social media mining suite of 2000000000. 00 iraq. Right and so im guessing that this is this is its a far reaching sort of a lets try to small target at specific individuals but but generally the average joe can be average show expect that there being so say an online thats exactly right and one of our main concerns but governments arent just targeting individual people but because theyre using ai and automation it means that they can reach everybody whos online xhosa media its all about the little as yet do we have any little is regulating such practices. There are in some places and one of our concerns is that often the rights that we expect to be protected offline and are protected offline and legal measures for protection for Free Expression for example are not necessarily apply the same way online so were looking to see when countries are implementing new laws to enshrine these rights for users online as well we actually kind of saw a disappointing example in nigeria this past year when the Digital Rights and freedoms dull was not signed by the president after it had been passed through the government so well be watching to see how those types of laws progress in the future. Isabel see youve talked so i want to take you back to the point you made about the kind of investments in in things like data mining that you pointed out on the part of governments like nigeria and kenya are you able to give us an explanation im hoping its not to take nickel as to how exactly this is done how do they have money its what we do on social media when they invest in that kind of technology. I think there are there are ways that can that this can take place but as i mentioned ai and automation are key to how this happens in many cases and the opportunity is really there because of the lack of Legal Protections that i mentioned but also because many forms are not adequately protecting their users rights and so its that combination of things that gives the opportunity for governments to use this advanced technology to monitor citizens so surveillance is obviously one aspect of officer port but i guess its broadly into the conversation about media freedoms Internet Freedoms for the sorry on the continent weve showed. An overview in terms of you know the rankings in Subsaharan Africa countries like sudan in ethiopia right at the bottom but just give us i mean you look at africa specifically give us your sense of just how things are in terms of Internet Freedom on the continent is there a gradual decline of things Getting Better all things just getting worse. This year we did see more countries in africa with a decline and an improvement but i also want to flag that its not all necessarily negative having said that it actually was our most volatile region that we studied this year ethiopia have the largest improvement of any country out of all 65. 00 of the report covers for a sudan had the largest decline out of all 65. 00 so theres a lot you know in the news in conversation these days about how the internet can be a tool for good it can be a tool for democracy or it can also be used by for tarion to repress their citizens and i think were able to see both of those and that is about just coming back to you know the survey that said weve been talking about if somebody is watching this program and theyre thinking gosh i dont want my government having access to to what im doing online on what im posting a social media is there a way its a safe god oneself from that some ways you can help protect yourself are by looking at the privacy settings on the on social media that you use and also if youre concerned about your safety using v. P. N. So virtual private networks. All right thats is a balance of from the Freedom House thank you. Thank you so much. About desk oil and screeching ty is spinning is the fos just going motorsport in south africa it was once shrouded in darkness again as he and gangsterism today a new generation of privacy is pushing to make this subculture mainstream and theyre pulling crowds to race habs across the country was interim deal. Screeching tires roaring motors and the empty of adrenaline this is the dog of south african street speak. Spinning its like a drug you have to be pretty tough for me to understand its turning its all about. The president i mean. You know just feel yourself going. To their rooms simply see how many death defying stunts you can perform before the engine gives out spinning evolved during the 1980 s. At the height of the upper tide regime and expensive cars which were considered status symbols of White Supremacy stores and jews to perform stunts as an act of defiance they were also the perfect getaway cars for galvestons i think. That the north has changed scenes a young generation of spain as has moved the sport off the streets and into the news events like wheels and smoke in the south of johannesburg a booking up across the country. One star of the scene is dealing browett is a key he draws excited she is from the crowd as he spins hes caught as close to them as possible and he always wins the competition a little brouwers burning wires in the woods now are. Bringing a lot of people and families and their group is going to the ground to see the players. Not more less idols than scorning. When he needs to. Respond to the family game the youngsters they want to do with. All those spinning still takes place on the streets the truly wild days are long gone today its seen as a legitimate sport in south africa and its performed much more safely in proper venues you can even sign up for a spinning course like here at the sweater drifting academy this is the Training Ground of the spinola be muggles a female only spinning crew theyre determined to prove that these kind of sport isnt just for bad boys. But i think i do tend to take away all that. Stigma that is built into the sport and were trying to take away better people can be can know that they can also comment experience things out of their comfort zone so this is a very great experience so it doesnt make me feel like a look at me he would say. Making. All those spinning has its roots in 50 today drivers needs to dig deep into their own pockets fixing a busted up cause doesnt come cheap professional spinosa likes gone awry in soweto is he spends up to 10000 euros a year just to keep their cars running lucky many spinners are also skilled mechanics. Those right now as we said we dont have any sponsors we dont have backing we dont have anything like for instance marco its a conversion. Of year or so but it doesnt come standard like. We convert to this if you have to go to someone that converts. To us one call youre going to pay probably a sense of 60000. 00 and thats quite a lot of money which not a lot of people. Scaurus wife isnt exactly pleased with has. Spends close to the sport of choice but that doesnt stop him from being a regular at the wilson small event every thursday in a society that remains segregated in so many ways spinning isnt Just Entertainment for sport or its also a sport which knocks down racial boundaries. Everyone loves a good just brings everyone together. Theres different of those who choose those different people youre welcome to go to for one purpose and to see people going to see a sports. Which is called swimming although some veteran subpoenas are worried that confining speeding to deceive me to then use east coast in the sport its all an emerging young generation of drivers a working hard to improve its reputation so that everybody can let off some steam. And that is it for now from africa as always you can catch all our stories on our website and Facebook Page now south africa is still revelling in the Rugby World Cup fever and the victoria and victorious place making their way home from japan such a day will leave you with pictures of some of the countries aspiring next time id like to. To try to get to. Know him or not. Want to do that but is he going to be willing to talk about to. Show you. Pictures of joy and evolution on the night that changed the world 30 years ago on nov 9th history was turned on its head as the berlin wall which had stood for nearly 3 decades began to crumble. And with that welcome to arts and culture in a week thats marked by remembrance of this momentous event in german and in World History and heres whats coming up on the program. Celebrations of the anniversary are happening all over the city at historic locations with installation exhibitions readings light shows and concert planned until this coming sunday. And former east german dissident and songwriter voiced beer money teamed up with chinese poet in berlin to commemorate the wall anniversary and the horrors of 10000. 00 men square those city or. Indeed its hard to celebrate enough the event that led to german reunification some 200. 00 events are going on all this week across the city and one of the places that played a key role in east germanys peaceful revolution 30 years ago is the guest salman a church in what used to be communist east berlin and lets go over to my colleague David Leavitts whos standing by there for us. I david tell us whats going on down there and how are people celebrating this historic occasion