Internet Restrictions and Shutdowns Rising in Africa

Internet censorship is increasingly on the rise in Africa as of late. Just imagine not being able to use WhatsApp, Facebook, and other services for several days at a time. This is a common occurrence in some African countries, where the internet is restricted or shut down from time to time.

Zambia is the latest country to do so during its general elections on 12th August 2021. Governments say it helps maintain law and order, whereas digital activists argue it’s censorship to repress political opinions and stop the flow of information online.

How does blocking work? Which African countries are restricting or shutting down the internet? And more importantly, is there any way to get around such hurdles? Read on to find out more:

How Do Governments Shut Down or Restrict Internet Access?

Internet Service Providers are ordered by the authorities to limit internet access or block it altogether. Depending on the country, ISPs use multiple techniques to carry out the instructions from the government.

URL-based blocking is one such method – it’s basically a filter that prevents users from accessing a list of banned websites. If someone tries to open these sites, they’re shown messages like “server not found.”

Another widely used method is bandwidth throttling, which is more subtle and involves severely slowing down traffic to certain sites to discourage access. This makes it difficult to know whether the internet is actively being restricted or the inadequate broadband infrastructure is the cause.

As a more extreme measure, ISPs can disable their services to shut down the internet entirely and prevent all access.

While service providers can say no to these directives by appealing to the courts, they rarely do in practice. After all, the governments give ISPs licenses, and they could risk losing their contracts or incur hefty fines for non-compliance.

Which African Countries Have Blocked the Internet in 2021?

The countries that have restricted or shut down the internet so far this year include (but are not limited to):

• Zambia: Messaging and social media apps were restricted on election day, and the government threatened to shut down the internet if citizens“failed to use cyberspace during this year’s election correctly.”

• Nigeria: In early June, the Nigerian government imposed an indefinite ban on Twitter, restricting the micro-blogging platform from operating in the country after it removed a Tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari.

• Ethiopia: All social media was blocked after the national elections were postponed for a second time in May. The country has recorded as many as 13 internet shutdowns since Abiy Ahmed Ali took oath as Prime Minister in April 2018.

• Uganda: The Ugandan government shut down the internet during the presidential election in January to allegedly prevent outside interference, which was restored after 100 hours.

• Eswatini: The tiny landlocked nation ordered an internet blackout due to concerns surrounding “national security” when the pro-democracy protests against King Mswati III turned violent.

Is There a Way to Combat Such Internet Censorship?

Fortunately, yes. Unless internet access has been shut down across the board, there are a variety of tools that individuals can use to bypass these roadblocks. The most effective one is none other than a Virtual Private Network.

A VPN lets you switch your IP address to that of a censorship-free country and protect all traffic via bank-grade encryption. As a result, you’re able to use the internet without any restrictions and nobody (not even your ISP) can tell what you’re doing online.

Some governments may resort to blocking VPNs, but they may not always go ahead with it as doing so can cause severe hindrances to large companies and foreign diplomats that use them for security purposes.

Final Word

Internet restrictions and shutdowns impact civic engagement, transparency, and free expression. However, despite the negative effects, it seems like the African continent won’t be seeing any less of these measures any time soon.