
Kenyans will soon need a license to post videos online - shortformblog
https://thenextweb.com/syndication/2018/05/28/kenyans-will-soon-need-a-license-to-post-videos-online/
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gruez
>The punishment, likewise, is also harsh. However, it will be near impossible
for the KFCB to enforce and monitor this in a scalable way.

great! now there's a crime that everyone have probably committed some time in
their life which carries a stiff prison sentence. any time there's an
opposition candidate that you don't like, just bring that up and they won't
bother you anymore :)

~~~
nils-m-holm
Every country has laws that are broad and vague and pretty much everybody is
guilty of having broken them at some point. They are very practical for
getting rid of dissenters. No need for the :).

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forkLding
I know I may be stating something obvious here, but isn't this bad (aka tell
me what the advantages of doing this by the people who passed the law) and how
did a law like this get passed?

EDIT: I mean that Kenya is a democracy and there has to be some kind of
rationale behind a move by the people pushing the move that "justifies" to the
Kenyan people, its not like Kenyans suddenly decided to vote in a dictator,
this new law is more restrictive than China.

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lovelearning
"Democracy" does not automatically guarantee liberties in most of the world.
In some countries, "democracy" has reduced to a system to vote in their next
authoritarian strongman who then dismantles all checks and balances by
appointing toadies to all institutions. Their citizens are not consulted about
their opinions. Russia, Turkey, Venezuela have already crossed over. Kenya and
India are on the way. Hungary too.

~~~
baud147258
I'd add Algeria to that list too.

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forapurpose
There's some upheaval in Kenya's democracy. Based on very limited reading: A
leading opposition figure was detained and, after delaying judicial review the
his detention, the government deported him before he could get a hearing in
court. The government claimed he lacked citizenship; he's Kenyan by birth but
has dual citizenship.

Tangential but important: That's the third government I've seen (I expect
there are more) use its immigration enforcement powers to avoid judicial
review and due process. The others are the US and UK.

~~~
isostatic
A few months ago Kenya shut down some TV stations [0] that were planning on
broadcasting a 'swearing in' of the opposition leader. There was some argy-
bargy about it including the supreme court ruling the shutdown illegal, but it
went ahead anyway [1]

This was back in Jan/Fab

[0] [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/30/kenyan-
governmen...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/30/kenyan-government-
shuts-free-to-air-tv-stations/) [1]
[https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/03/africa/kenya-tv-
stations-...](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/03/africa/kenya-tv-stations-
shutdown/index.html)

~~~
plekter
I was in Kenya just after this, when Miguna Miguna went missing for a few days
(people feared he had been disappeared,but he "just" got deported). As chance
would have it, I was in his home town. Quite heavy demonstrations - makeshift
roadblocks with burning tires, and they raided a beer truck, and the police
did crowd control by shooting into the air.

I was in Kenya in 2007 as well when the same opposition candidate also lost
the election. That was much, much uglier. While I do sympathise somewhat with
his followers (the region he is from is much poorer than central Kenya, and
this follows tribal lines - they feel they are not being heard, and there is
some truth to that), I do think that this candidate is a quite dangerous man
to have in power. Any influence he has now is coming from the fact that his
followers will tear the country up if he says so - and he did say so back in
2007.

Kenyan politics is a bit of a mess I'm afraid..

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isostatic
Terrible site - first the iOS "deceptive website scam", then a "iPhone user
you've won $1000" full page scam

~~~
jasonkostempski
Get a mobile device and a browser that gives you control to block that stuff.
Complaining about it here won't help anyone.

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scrumption
So it's all on the end user to go to extra steps to avoid browser hijackers,
and the company allowing the garbage ads is completely absolved of blame?

>Complaining about it here won't help anyone.

Unnecessarily douchey thing to post. A nonzero amount of people will read the
comments and decide against opening the article/open it in an archival service
instead and bypass the malicious ads.

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booleandilemma
I’ll save everyone the trouble of looking it up on google: 100,000 Kenyan
Shillings is $985 USD. Pretty hefty fine for sharing a video you recorded with
your cell phone.

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w_t_payne
For your average Kenyan it is ... rather large.

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phyzome
Interesting that it's _written_ with a seeming intent of discouraging
filmmakers from making films that (perhaps) disparage or provide a distorted
view of Kenyan culture, which I can sort of understand them pushing for.

But no international filmmaker is going to give a shit about such a small
fine, and the KFCB is clear that this applies to individuals posting personal
videos on social media.

I can't tell which of those was their real aim.

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nmstoker
Surely a lawyer will find a loophole in no time?

It might cause a drop in the number of people intending their footage be for
public release, but one might expect a rise in those who intend for it to be
private and then conveniently change their plan at a later point. But maybe in
due course cunning Dr Ezekiel would get wise and require a licence to change
intentions...

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bencompanion
One possible hole based on interpretation is that the language refers to the
"creation of a film meant for public exhibition". You could argue that
uploading to Facebook with some restriction on privacy settings is not for
'public' exhibition, even if the group that it is meant for exhibition to is
very large.

The document shown also doesn't specify that the actual exhibition is a
problem. So, if I create a film intended for private exhibition and then later
exhibit it publicly, is that okay?

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Kilonzus
Honestly as a Kenyan American, its scary to see my country move in manners
wholly authoritative. It seems the government is consolidating its power. As
we get closer ties to China, our government gets stronger without fixong
existing corruption that is rampant and widespread.

~~~
supertrope
Kenya or USA?

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himom
The worst outcome of this is other so-called democracies exploit incidents
like this to follow suit and take away more rights from their citizens. If one
looks at the fall of Rome, the first autocratic emperor was Augustus followed
by the rest of the sinister characters of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. America
and other countries could go that way if corrupt senators bestow emperor
status on their leader. Russia is already this way, Turkey to an extent and
China definitely.

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walterbell
Is this a test case? Kenya is a global pioneer in mobile money (Vodaphone
M-Pesa). German publishers are seeking upload filters in the EU, with a scope
that far exceeds video, e.g. Github has objected to source code upload
filtering.

Upload filters may soon become EU law:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17164244](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17164244)

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mc32
What of the YT Nairobi offices, then? Can't imagine YT working with the local
gov't to issue licenses to creators on the spot.

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wxuan
Apparently the proposer, (Mutua) seems to have already proposed similar
legislation. I just wonder how they crack down on people with pseudonyms. They
can't arrest 'joblo31'; unless they track down people's IPs and heavily sleuth
around. Likely will be a tool to wield against companies to fork over data
over compliance.

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tekproxy
Dey eat da poo poo.

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thelegendxp
The headline is slightly inaccurate. Filming (for the purpose of public
viewing) without a license is illegal, not posting videos online.

~~~
shortformblog
But as the government body implied that "public viewing" included posting on
social media, it is effectively a de facto ban on uploading videos on social
media without a license. Sometimes it's not what the law specifically says
that matters; it's the law's effect.

