Mali’s media regulator, the Haute Autorité de la Communication (HAC), is proposing reforms to subject people with large social media following and administrators of large online groups to the same legal frameworks that govern traditional media.
This was made known by the President of the HAC, Gaoussou Coulibaly, during the New Year’s greetings ceremony of the press to the President of the Transition at the Palais de Koulouba on January 31, 2025. Gaoussou Coulibaly announced that the provisional text, which is yet to be submitted to the Conseil National de la Transition (CNT), aims to set up a regulatory mechanism for social networks in particular.
According to media reports, Gaoussou Coulibaly stated that anyone with at least 15,000 subscribers on social networks will now be subject to the same regulations as traditional journalists, as this threshold is considered to reflect the public reach of a message.
According to him, once an individual reaches this audience, his or her communications can no longer be considered private. Consequently, the regulation will apply not only to media professionals, but also to influencers and anyone with a large audience on digital platforms.
Although the text of the framework has not been made public, and there is limited information about it, it is feared that this declaration of intention is another calculated step towards surveillance and repression.
The Media Foundation for West Africa calls on the Malian media regulator to tred cautiously with this intended reform. We urge the regulator to engage all stakeholders, including the media and social media influencers to ensure that the final text will not be inimical to press freedom, freedom of expression, access to information and economic freedoms (or “freedom of enterprise” as stipulated in the Malian 1992 Constitution).
