Google and Meta Face Fresh Questions Over Online Trust in Africa

Who decides what is real online, how effectively are children protected from harmful content, and who holds technology companies accountable when their algorithms shape what millions of people see? Those questions took centre stage at a technology summit in Nairobi as artificial intelligence complicates efforts to maintain trust in digital platforms.

Technology and digital policy experts at the Trust Summit called for greater transparency from platforms, stronger safeguards for children and regulatory frameworks that can keep pace with rapid technological change, placing renewed scrutiny on companies such as Google and Meta.

“Platforms do have a responsibility to vet and verify and let users know what is real and what has been artificially created,” said Charles Murito, Google’s regional director for government affairs and public policy for sub-Saharan Africa.

The remarks raise a practical question for users and regulators: how can people distinguish authentic material from AI-generated images, videos and other content, and what responsibility should platforms bear when misleading material circulates through their services?

The issue is particularly significant in African markets where social media has become an important channel for news, business and public debate. In Kenya, Facebook and Instagram accounted for a combined 79% of digital advertising spending by local companies in the three months to September 2025, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya. The figures underline Meta’s commercial influence over how businesses reach online audiences, although advertising expenditure does not directly measure the platforms’ share of news consumption or overall internet use.

Google’s reach extends across Search, YouTube, Maps and cloud services. The company said its products supported an estimated $16 billion in economic activity across sub-Saharan Africa in 2023, according to research commissioned by Google from consultancy Public First. The figure is Google’s estimate of the economic contribution of its products, not its regional revenue.

That scale raises another question: as businesses, publishers and users become more dependent on a handful of digital platforms, what mechanisms exist to scrutinise the systems that determine which information receives attention?

Mercy Ndegwa of Meta said platforms were designed to facilitate social connections through technology, offering users curated experiences rather than simply supplying content.

The role of curation puts recommendation algorithms under scrutiny. How much responsibility should platforms accept for the material their systems recommend, particularly when users are children or when content is misleading, manipulated or generated by artificial intelligence?

At the summit, experts urged parents to keep children under 13 off social media. But the recommendation also exposed a broader policy dilemma: can parental supervision alone protect children when age restrictions can be difficult to enforce and digital platforms are deeply embedded in social and educational life?

The experts argued that responsibility must extend beyond families to technology companies, governments and schools. The challenge for policymakers is to establish safeguards that are enforceable without unnecessarily restricting access to useful digital services.

Charlize Theron (South Africa)

Most Famous Movie: Monster (2003)

Short Bio: An Academy Award-winning actress and producer, Charlize Theron is one of the highest-paid actresses
in the world. She gained international prominence in the late 1990s and received critical acclaim for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, becoming the first South African to win an acting Oscar. She has since starred in numerous successful films,including Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, and several Fast & Furious installments.

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