Chad limits the internet to curb "hate messages"

The flow of Chadian Internet users has been reduced to prevent the spread of "hateful messages" on social networks, the Minister of Communication told AFP on Monday. "The dissemination of messages of incitement to hatred and division" prompted the government to take "this temporary measure" on July 22, which will be "lifted at any moment" , was content to ensure Minister Mahamat Zene Cherif, government spokesperson.

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But Chadian telecoms officials say on condition of anonymity that the decision is linked to the broadcast of a video in which a Chadian officer, during an altercation with mechanics on July 14, fires point blank at two of them. them before being himself attacked with knives. According to a press release from the public prosecutor, "one of the young people succumbed to his injuries" while the officer, hospitalized, "will be brought to justice once healed". On social networks, such as Facebook or WhatsApp, where the video continues to circulate, some Internet users criticize the military, but also stress that he is from the same ethnic group as President Idriss Déby Itno, who came to power by force in 1990. .

"Chadians are subject to the law of a minority", thus ranted a surfer on a Chadian news Facebook page, while several others asserted: "for 30 years, there has been no justice in Chad" . The controversy grew to such an extent that President Déby reacted to the Eid al-Adha celebrations on July 31, without directly mentioning the blocking of the internet or video but focused on the service. WhatsApp messaging and VPNs, software that bypass local internet blocking.

“WhatsApp and VPN are not created to insult each other, to cultivate the tear of the national fabric or to criticize ethnic groups,” he said. A consumer rights association for its part asked Monday in a statement to operators to restore access to social networks, the restriction of which "constitutes a violation of freedom of expression". The measure "constitutes a serious shortfall for us, the mobile telephone operators, and we hope for a rapid release" told AFP a mobile telephony manager who requested anonymity.