Digitales (DD), and Columbia Global Freedom of Expression (CGFoE).7 CYRILLA database has 8 laws, 9 case laws and 1 analysis across 9 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.10 This database thus provides insights into the legislative and judicial approaches to freedom of expression and serves as a useful tool for informing future conversations in Africa. The CYRILLA Collaborative’s repository is an open database entailing different legal instruments, including treaties, statutes and case laws that advance digital rights. As of June 2024, the database contained 80 laws, 150 case laws and 47 analyses on freedom of expression8 from an array of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, the Americas, Australia, the Middle East and North Africa and Asia, reflecting a comprehensive scope of global involvement in addressing legal aspects of freedom of expression.9 From this statistic, the Against this background, this policy brief(herein referred to as ‘the brief’) aims to address TFGBV, disinformation, and misinformation in relation to legal instruments on the freedom of expression, propose policy recommendations to safeguard it and ensure universal access to the internet. This preliminary chapter serves as the brief’s introduction, while chapter two addresses lessons from select African perspectives on the freedom of expression online. Chapter 3 reconciles this freedom against two emerging issues 1.) TFGBV and 2.) Social media and content regulation. Chapter 4 advances the brief’s recommendations, and the paper concludes in Chapter 5 with a summary of the analysis conducted in the entirety of the brief. CYRILLA, ‘About CYRILLA,’ https://cyrilla.org/en/page/jy0cpvu41mxklyye34joiggb9/about-cyrilla Accessed 19 April 2024. 8 CYRILLA, ‘Library,’ https://cyrilla.org/en/library/?q= Accessed 12 April 2024. 9 The specific countries include: Angola, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cuba, Egypt, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Uganda, and Vietnam. Furthermore, the database includes analyses on freedom of expression from various organisations such as Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, Global Network Initiative, News 24, Association for Progressive Communications (APC), and Human Rights Watch, providing multifaceted insights into this fundamental right. 7 These countries are Angola, Cabo Verde, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe. 10 The CYRILLA Collaborative’s repository is an open database entailing different legal instruments, including treaties, statutes and case laws that advance digital rights. 6