It’s January, and Three African Countries Have Already Had Internet Blackouts This Year
On the first day of the new year, the Democratic Republic of Congo cut internet connections and SMS services nationwide-for the second day in a row. The reason? To avoid the “chaos” that might result from its presidential election results. Not even a week later, on Jan. 7, Gabon’s government did the same after an attempted coup. On Tuesday, Zimbabwe cut off social media and internet access. The government restored much of the internet Wednesday but kept a WhatsApp ban in place. And it’s unlikely that these will be the last “internet blackouts” we hear about over the coming months. (All three of these incidents, ironically, took place after I outlined this piece.)