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The South African
13 hours ago
- Business
- The South African
Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa: Two major barriers to digital inclusion in SA
Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa, Chairperson of B20 South Africa's Digital Transformation Task Force, was one of the speakers at an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) session held in Johannesburg on Friday, 18 July. Mahanyele-Dabengwa was asked about the worrying number of South Africans currently without internet access and the barriers holding the country back from digital inclusion. Mahanyele-Dabengwa, who is also the South Africa CEO and Executive Director at Naspers, was also questioned on the actions to be taken to transition the remainder of the population online. In her detailed response, Mahanyele-Dabengwa admitted that while South Africa has made meaningful progress in digital policy and innovation – from pioneering TV White Space trials to implementing spectrum auctions with social obligations – the reality is that around 25% of our population remains offline. She added that from her perspective, despite the significant advancements, two key barriers continue to hinder digital inclusion: Infrastructure availability – Many underserved communities, particularly in rural provinces like Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, still lack access to reliable broadband infrastructure. Affordability – Even where infrastructure exists, it's often unaffordable for low-income households to access devices and data. Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa went on to mention that according to the GSMA, the single biggest barrier to internet use in South Africa is the cost of smart devices and mobile data. To break it down further: The poorest 20% of South Africans spend roughly 12% of their monthly income just to afford 1GB of data – six times higher than the global affordability benchmark of 2%. This is simply unsustainable for widespread, equitable digital participation, added Mahanyele-Dabengwa. Coverage gap She also cited the current coverage gap, especially in rural and peri-urban communities, as a major obstacle. Open Signal data shows that rural users in South Africa experience 15% slower download speeds and nearly double the signal outages compared to those in urban areas. These infrastructure disparities mean that even when users can afford data, the experience is limited and unreliable. Mahanyele-Dabengwa concluded by saying that to close these gaps and drive meaningful digital inclusion, we must act on three fronts: Promote affordability of devices and data – Consider removing or reducing import taxes and VAT on entry-level digital devices. – Introduce targeted incentives for telcos to reduce mobile broadband pricing in low-income markets. 2. Invest in last-mile infrastructure – Expand rural connectivity through public-private partnerships. – For example, Vodacom's R430 million rural 4G project in the Eastern Cape brought mobile connectivity to 19 previously unserved villages. – These are the kinds of investments we must scale nationally. 3. Streamline regulatory frameworks – Fast-track spectrum licensing and simplify municipal-level approvals to accelerate network expansion. – Empower smaller ISPs and community networks with flexible access to infrastructure and open access models. Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa's comments underscore the urgency of closing South Africa's digital gap, especially as the economy grows more reliant on digital access. Her call to action stresses that connectivity is not a luxury, but a lifeline – and one that must be made available to all South Africans. Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
Daily News Egypt
16-07-2025
- General
- Daily News Egypt
Translation in the Digital Age: Between the Revival and Decline of Languages
How has translation become a tool for shaping the destiny of languages in the age of digital globalization? From 7 to 11 July 2025, Geneva hosted the WSIS+20 High-Level Summit, organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in collaboration with UNESCO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Among its key sessions, the symposium 'Leaders TalkX: From Local to Global: Preserving Culture and Language in the Digital Age' reaffirmed that linguistic and cultural diversity is no longer a cultural luxury or an isolated concern but has become an integral part of the struggle for survival in a globalized information society. In this context, the debate is renewed about the crucial role translation plays in the life—and even the fate—of languages: in their emergence, development, decline, and sometimes rebirth. Throughout history, translation has never been a neutral process. It has always been an active force in the dynamism of languages between life and death. The most famous example of this is Latin, which dominated Europe for centuries before beginning to decline in the face of rising national languages. Its fall was not due to structural weaknesses or limited expressive capacity but rather to the vast translation movement that transferred its knowledge and thought into French, Italian, Spanish, and English. Paradoxically, translation here played a dual role: it contributed to disseminating Latin thought while simultaneously accelerating the abandonment of Latin itself as a living language of communication. A similar scenario occurred with the Coptic language in Egypt. Following the introduction of Arabic after the Islamic conquest, a widespread translation movement began—first with religious texts and later with scientific and intellectual works—translating them from Coptic into Arabic. As this movement advanced, Coptic gradually receded from the spheres of daily communication and knowledge production until it became confined to church rituals. In this case, translation was not merely a cultural bridge but an effective instrument in displacing one language and enabling the rise of another, within a broader context of social and political transformation. On the other hand, translation can serve as a means of revitalizing languages, as is currently happening with the Amazigh language in North Africa. After decades of marginalization and confinement to oral use in villages and mountainous areas, organized translation efforts—alongside education and media initiatives—have revived Amazigh in several countries, such as Morocco and Algeria. Intellectuals and translators have begun rendering literary works, historical texts, and media content into Amazigh, contributing to the modernization of its written structure and the reformulation of its vocabulary and terminology to meet contemporary needs. As a result, Amazigh has regained its legal status as an official and living language within the national linguistic fabric. From this, it can be argued that the fear of languages disappearing is misplaced. Languages do not die because others overwhelm them, but because they isolate themselves from the world, refuse to engage with the knowledge of others, or fail to develop. The history of languages has shown that translation is not merely a means of communication between peoples but a creative force that shapes, revives, or erodes. A language into which knowledge is not translated—and which does not absorb what is translated into it—condemns itself to decline and extinction. In the age of digital globalization, translation has become a tool for civilizational survival rather than a cultural luxury. Weak and marginalized languages are no longer threatened solely by the dominance of major languages, but also by the lack of translation into and from them. This was clearly emphasized by the WSIS+20 Summit, which stressed that the future of linguistic and cultural diversity now hinges on societies' ability to harness translation technologies and linguistic artificial intelligence applications to support endangered languages and revive forgotten intellectual heritage. The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth of languages, as recorded in human history, inevitably passes through translation. Therefore, defending any language is not about shielding it from external influences but about translating it for others—and translating other cultures' knowledge into it. Only through this mechanism do languages survive, and only through this strategy do nations remain present in the memory of the world and the current of history. Dr. Marwa El-Shinawy – Academic and writer
Deccan Herald
15-07-2025
- Business
- Deccan Herald
UN report urges stronger measures to detect AI-driven deepfakes
Companies must use advanced tools to detect and stamp out misinformation and deepfake content to help counter growing risks of election interference and financial fraud, the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU) urged in a recent report. Deepfakes such as AI-generated images and videos, and audio that convincingly impersonates real people, pose mounting risks, the ITU said in the report released at its "AI for Good Summit" in Geneva. The ITU called for robust standards to combat manipulated multimedia and recommended that content distributors such as social media platforms use digital verification tools to authenticate images and videos before sharing. "Trust in social media has dropped significantly because people don't know what's true and what's fake," Bilel Jamoussi, Chief of the Study Groups Department at the ITU's Standardization Bureau, noted. Combatting deepfakes was a top challenge due to Generative AI's ability to fabricate realistic multimedia, he said. Leonard Rosenthol of Adobe, a digital editing software leader that has been addressing deepfakes since 2019, underscored the importance of establishing the provenance of digital content to help users assess its trustworthiness. "We need more of the places where users consume their content to show this information... When you are scrolling through your feeds you want to know: 'can I trust this image, this video...'" Rosenthol said. Dr. Farzaneh Badiei, founder of digital governance research firm Digital Medusa, stressed the importance of a global approach to the problem, given there is currently no single international watchdog focusing on detecting manipulated material. "If we have patchworks of standards and solutions, then the harmful deepfake can be more effective," she told Reuters. The ITU is currently developing standards for watermarking videos — which make up 80% of internet traffic — to embed provenance data such as creator identity and timestamps.
Iraq Business
15-07-2025
- Business
- Iraq Business
Iraq sees Surge in Internet Penetration
By John Lee. The Iraqi Ministry of Communications has announced internet penetration reaching 82.9 percent of the population by the end of 2024, up from just 44.3 percent in 2019, according to official data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Key components of the Ministry's strategy include the rapid expansion of the FTTH (Fibre to the Home) network across Baghdad and other provinces, development of digital infrastructure, and the promotion of a competitive and supportive environment among internet service providers. The Ministry reaffirmed its commitment to implementing further developmental initiatives under the Minister's supervision, with continued collaboration between the public and private sectors to reinforce Iraq's modern digital foundation. (Source: Ministry of Communications)
Deccan Herald
14-07-2025
- Business
- Deccan Herald
Taiwanese, Vietnamese firms keen to invest in Indian footwear
Companies must use advanced tools to detect and stamp out misinformation and deepfake content to help counter growing risks of election interference and financial fraud, the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU) urged in a recent report. Deepfakes such as AI-generated images and videos, and audio that convincingly impersonates real people, pose mounting risks, the ITU said in the report released at its "AI for Good Summit" in Geneva. The ITU called for robust standards to combat manipulated multimedia and recommended that content distributors such as social media platforms use digital verification tools to authenticate images and videos before sharing. "Trust in social media has dropped significantly because people don't know what's true and what's fake," Bilel Jamoussi, Chief of the Study Groups Department at the ITU's Standardization Bureau, noted. Combatting deepfakes was a top challenge due to Generative AI's ability to fabricate realistic multimedia, he said. Leonard Rosenthol of Adobe, a digital editing software leader that has been addressing deepfakes since 2019, underscored the importance of establishing the provenance of digital content to help users assess its trustworthiness. "We need more of the places where users consume their content to show this you are scrolling through your feeds you want to know: 'can I trust this image, this video...'" Rosenthol said. Dr. Farzaneh Badiei, founder of digital governance research firm Digital Medusa, stressed the importance of a global approach to the problem, given there is currently no single international watchdog focusing on detecting manipulated material. "If we have patchworks of standards and solutions, then the harmful deepfake can be more effective," she told Reuters. The ITU is currently developing standards for watermarking videos - which make up 80% of internet traffic - to embed provenance data such as creator identity and timestamps.
