Kenya's controversial Film, Stage Plays and Publication Act 2016, destined to regulate OTT (Over the Top) services including the likes of Netflix and Hulu, and relevant content, will be difficult to pass says local industry analyst Leonard Kore.

The proposed legislation has been described by film and creative sectors as 'draconian'.

If enacted, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be held accountable for allowing "unclassified" material on their platform and could face fines of up to Kshs 2 million (US$20,000).

In drafting the document the Kenya Film and Classification Board (KFCB) may have also overlooked specifics on how the internet works, since ISPs do not host content separately from hosting companies.

Most local hosting companies hire servers from international vendors, raising the question as to whether or not local laws can affect content hosted offshore.

Kore, a Senior Research Analyst, Telecom and Networking, Africa at International Data Corporation (IDC) East Africa told ITWeb Africa that it might not be as easy to pass the regulation as the Board perceives. "These services are also not easy to regulate due to advancing channels of accessing such content."

He noted that any content regulation would come from the OTT service providers themselves. "In most African countries, foreign content does not have restrictions, restrictions come from the providers themselves to their users e.g. geo-coding premium content for certain users and countries."

Kore added that, "Regulating foreign content is also difficult because users are also able to bypass controls put in place for example one can be in Africa while accessing such Netflix content as their IP address can be configured to appear as if the person is in the US. This therefore bypasses configurations put in place as part of regulating foreign content."

He pointed out that a country like Ethiopia which has one telecom company, Ethio Telecom, and controlled by the government, could easily achieve this. Currently, Ethiopia has put a muzzle on social media since it announced that the country would be under state of emergency.

"Across the board, VoIP is gaining usage and acceptance because of growing adoption of VoIP in enterprise environment as part of unified communication solutions," Kore said forecasting the growth of internet services in the continent.