Nationwide Internet blackouts: The reasons and possible solutions

Can you imagine what it would be like if you turned on WhatsApp one day and were unable to send or receive messages? How about if social media services such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok also stopped working and no one around you can connect to the Internet, and you cannot access it either.

This happens occasionally in some countries, especially during election seasons. Sometimes, government officials intentionally disrupt the Internet or mobile applications, resulting in the loss of internet-dependent services. In some instances, internet outages last for a few days or weeks, while in others, persist for longer.

The Internet has become the centre of gravity for free speech. Feeling the heat of mounting online discontent, many governments impose nationwide internet blackouts.

They justify their actions as necessary for maintaining peace, counter threats to public order, and thwarting challenges to national security.

Shutdowns of the Internet are common during elections. In 2020, for example, seven countries, including India, Guinea, Belarus, Burundi, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, and Togo, shut down the Internet.

If things got out of hand, the Kenyan government threatened to cut Internet connectivity during the 2017 elections. One wonders the social-economic toll that would befall Kenyans if the government ever turned off the Internet lights.

Uganda’s communications regulator ordered operators to cut internet connectivity during the 2016 elections to quell mounting violent protests. In early 2018, Chad’s President Idriss Deby blocked social media for a whole year, citing “security reasons”.

The government may claim to turn off the Internet for other reasons, such as to keep students from cheating in the national exams. In 2020, Jordan had three national internet shutdowns. In one instance, the Ministry of Education blocked Telegram, WhatsApp, and Facebook during national exams to avert cheating.

Internet interruption can be caused by throttling, a technical term for drastically slowing the internet speed to a crawl, making it frustratingly hard to load webpages. Governments can also order Internet service providers to cut off the Internet altogether.

Sometimes, the shutdown can have dire consequences. The social and economic costs are incalculable. It certainly affects livelihoods, suppresses civil society, inhibits access to information, and curtails the freedom of expression.

There have been many legal challenges against government-ordered shutdowns, with successful challenges filed in nations such as Uganda, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and DR Congo.

In the event that the Internet is unavailable, you can circumvent it by using Virtual Private Networks to get online again. VPNs are generally regarded as the most straightforward and safest method of bypassing Internet shutdowns.

By downloading and using a virtual private network, you can access blocked websites through a proxy server located outside the country. To put it simply, you trick your internet service provider into thinking you are somewhere else other than the region where the Internet is blocked.