The Ugandan government has the dubious merit of having inaugurated digital blackouts in Africa in 2021. With controversial presidential elections on the horizon, on the afternoon of January 13 the internet was no longer accessible through the mobile networks of the African country. Oriental.
It was the eve of the voting.
The blackout, ordered by a government instruction to the main telephone operators, lasted for five days, until January 18, and social networks continued to experience interruptions until February 10.
Officially, the measure was intended to prevent the dissemination of false results and hate messages that encouraged violence during the elections.
Civil society believes that the blackout was trying to make it difficult for the opposition to organize,
The economic cost of the blockade in Uganda has been quantified at around 100 million euros.
The social consequences are more difficult to assess.
Some organizations denounced that, during this period, the Ugandans ran an unnecessary risk, since, for example, some health services were affected, not to mention the violence of the repression that occurred when the networks were silenced.
The outline of the Ugandan episode is quite representative of the balance of intentional interruptions of the internet in the sub-Saharan African region during the past year, where more than half of the countries that suffered them are located.
According to data from the Top10VPN observatory, in 2021, digital blackouts occurred in 21 countries around the world, eleven of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
These affected 171 million users and had an economic cost of more than 1,770 million euros.
In most consolidating democracies, people ... are increasingly participating in civic space and governance.
The authorities often do not like this change in power dynamics and try to control it
“Internet outages are increasing in Africa.
In most democracies that are consolidating, people are becoming more assertive and trying to be more informed;
at the same time, it is increasingly participating in civic space and governance.
Often the authorities do not like this change in power dynamics and try to control it.
Most of the closures ordered by African governments take place around protests and elections, in order to silence dissidents”, summarizes Felicia Anthonio, an AccesNow activist and one of those in charge of the KeepItOn campaign, which monitors and fight against this form of censorship.
On the other hand, the Surfshark organization also publishes an annual report, although this only includes the closures of social networks, so its figures are relatively different.
However, according to this other balance, of the 17 countries affected in 2021, ten are in sub-Saharan Africa.
The difference lies fundamentally in the evolution, since the Surfshark data reveals a decrease in these episodes compared to 2020.
But beyond the nuances in the methodologies, what worries and mobilizes defenders of digital rights is the impact of these blackouts.
"The observation we make is that it is very common in many African countries, when sensitive periods such as elections approach, cuts are frequent," warns Qémal Affagnon, head of West Africa for the Internet Without Borders organization.
“This is an observation that testifies to the failure of the democratic framework in these countries,” continues the activist, “because we know that in some countries, when the media is censored, for example, the internet is the last place the public can go. people to express their discontent.
For Affagnon, as for other analysts, this migration of critical voices towards the digital space explains the greater control of the networks by the authorities: “In this type of situation, the public powers do not hesitate to radically cut off the internet.
We see how, after a certain moment, the African countries are more willing to organize these elections, but at the same time, in those periods, in terms of communication or the circulation of the results, things do not always happen as they should , and we continue to attend, unfortunately, on a recurring basis to the blockades of cyberspace”.
The Top10VPN report reveals that sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than half of the countries where outages occurred, and that it also hosted more than half of the outage time: 15,963 hours of the 30,179 that occurred worldwide.
But that Asia is the continent hardest hit by these measures in terms of affected users and the cost caused.
One of the data that indicates the increase in the threat in sub-Saharan Africa is that resorting to this form of censorship has become more common.
In 2020, eight countries in the region suffered it, compared to eleven last year, and the duration has more than doubled, from 6,929 hours in 2020 to the aforementioned 15,963 in 2021. All these elements worry civil society.
Anthonio, for example, warns about the bad examples of the lack of reaction to blackouts.
“When a government sees its neighbors shut down the internet and come out with more power and no consequences, it is more likely to be encouraged to try the same tactic.
To reverse this trend, we must hold leaders accountable for their actions and make it clear that the days of impunity are over,” says the AccesNow activist.
Blackouts are enforced by both democratic and authoritarian regimes around the world
Felicia Anthonio, digital rights activist
On the other hand, the profile of some of the censor countries, which are among those with democratic prestige, is worrying.
“Blackouts are imposed by both democratic and authoritarian regimes around the world,” notes Felicia Anthonio, “and the main reason African governments shut down the internet is to control the narrative and impede the flow of information.”
Affagnon cites one of the most surprising cases of the past year: “In March 2021, for example, Senegal, which is often cited as a model in terms of democratic practice, experienced a period of high political tension, related to the arrest of the opposition Ousmane Sonko and which was interpreted by his supporters as a kidnapping.
This situation provoked a series of violent demonstrations,
looting and the death of people during clashes with the police.
In this context, the internet was cut off and, once again, it was quickly observed that rights, such as freedom of expression, for example, were being violated.
The truth is that the situation of the first months of 2022 is not too rosy.
Some of the cases, without going any further, demonstrate this continuity, linked to certain situations of instability.
“On January 23, the Burkinabe authorities made the decision to cut the network for the third time in a few months.
They did so while reports were circulating that shots had been heard in the capital and the president was being held by mutinous soldiers”, recalls the representative of Internet Sans Frontières.
Specifically, the Burkina Faso government shut down the internet in November as part of a wave of demonstrations against the passage of a French military convoy through the country.
He repeated the operation on January 8, coinciding with what was announced as an operation against a coup.
And he did it again on January 23,
when an army uprising overthrew President Roch Kaboré.
Intentional incommunicado detention has been recorded so far this year, in addition to Burkina Faso, at least in Sudan, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.
Faced with this situation, Felicia Anthonio dissects the blackout phenomenon: “They are an attack on democracy and human rights.
They are intentional acts by governments to silence people and control the narrative, precisely when people are seeking life-saving or essential information in the midst of a crisis, or fighting for their fundamental rights.”
To substantiate her complaint, the AccesNow activist recalls what happens when the network is disconnected: “We continue to document serious human rights violations every time the authorities shut down the internet.
This obstruction makes it difficult for journalists and activists to hold perpetrators to account and fuels a dangerous culture of impunity.
Lockdowns tear families and friendships apart, as people become isolated, others lose jobs, scholarships or other opportunities, and deepen the digital gender gap between men and women.”
Anthonio sends a strong message that can serve as a summary of the situation: "One thing is clear, no matter what justification governments give: internet shutdowns destroy lives and should never be normalized."
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