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You are here: Home / DC Authors / Mali And The New Trend of Internet Blackouts In Africa

Mali And The New Trend of Internet Blackouts In Africa

August 17, 2018 by Livert Ngum Leave a Comment

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Internet Blackouts In Africa

Africa, they say, has one root and one culture, thereby causing Africans to think in one direction. As such, authorities in Mali have restricted internet access on the eve of the presidential run-off vote. Mali in fact is just following in the footsteps of Cameroon where the internet was disconnected from January 2017 to March 2017 as a result of the on-going crisis in the country’s English-speaking regions.

Internet Blackouts In Africa
President of Mali Ibrahim Boubacar Keita

In any event, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the President of Mali, is now set for a run-off election against the main opposition candidate, Soumaila Cissé. Keita failed to win the first round of the elections on July, 29 2018, scoring 41 percent while Cissé had 18 percent.

According to Cissé, the elections were fraught with irregularities and he has been trying to unite other candidates behind him for the run-off. Keita’s camp has denied the allegations of fraud but has resorted to what seems to be a strategy to prevent the opposition candidate from making any gains in the second round of the elections with a new weapon: internet blackouts.

According to France-based charity Internet Without Borders, the capacity of the internet had technically been restricted to prevent the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and social networks. It has definitely been noticed that internet connection across the West African Nation seem to have been tampered with at an opportune time for the government.

So internet blackouts are a growing trend for Africa. Governments, like in Mali, claim to have shut down connections during elections and crisis periods on grounds of security. But rights groups and opposition dismiss these claims, alleging that internet blackouts are designed to help the government control information, manipulate elections, and/or repress dissident voices.

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Filed Under: DC Authors Tagged With: Africa, Internet and Democracy, Journalism and Free Speech, Mali, Voting Technology, West Africa

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About Livert Ngum

Livert Ngum is a journalist who writes for Democracy Chronicles from the city of Bamenda in Cameroon. She studied journalism and media at National Polytechnic Bamenda.

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