Africa experienced 21 internet shutdowns across 15 countries in 2024 — the highest number ever recorded — often coinciding with protests, conflicts or elections and increasing instability, according to reports cited by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
According to the article “Offline and Silenced: The Quiet Rise of Internet Repression in Africa”, published on Friday (19) by the ISS, the digital era is exposing a stark contradiction on the continent.
“Many governments frequently accuse technology giants of monopolising discourse and spreading disinformation, yet they use internet shutdowns and other measures to contain protest movements or control narratives,” criticised the authors, Juliam Baum and Michelle van Rooyen.
In 2024, Africa recorded 21 internet shutdowns in 15 countries, according to reports by the human rights organisation Access Now, cited by ISS researchers.
“These disruptions often coincided with (potential or actual) protests, civil unrest, conflicts or elections, increasing instability. Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition say this was the worst year ever on the continent and part of a global record of 296 shutdowns across 54 countries,” they lamented.
“If left unchecked, internet shutdowns may become yet another political tactic to control narratives, avoid scrutiny and tighten control over power,” they warned.
According to the authors, Ethiopia has one of the longest and most systematic records of internet access shutdowns in Africa, with around 30 incidents recorded between 2016 and 2024.
Sudan and parts of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo — Angola’s neighbour — have also experienced intermittent or conflict-related shutdowns, they continued.
In February 2024, Senegal, a neighbour of Guinea-Bissau, cut internet connections during electoral protests, silencing millions of people, they added.
These government practices continued into 2025, notably in Tanzania, where communication disruptions on the day of its general elections, on 29 October, raised concerns about electoral transparency.
“This scenario is becoming increasingly common across the African continent,” the authors noted, stating that such incidents signal a worrying escalation in the withdrawal of digital access during political transitions.
These shutdowns also have economic consequences and, in 2024, caused losses of more than US$1.6 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“In Africa, where mobile money services and digital platforms underpin much of the informal economy, these disruptions can be devastating,” they reiterated.
Meanwhile, states are increasingly using cybersecurity and cybercrime laws to expand their control over citizens’ digital activities.
“In Kenya and Zambia [a neighbour of Mozambique], new legislation approved in 2025 expanded government powers over online content, data and networks, officially to combat cybercrime and security risks,” they exemplified.
In practice, the researchers explained, such laws make it easier to continuously monitor, regulate and restrict digital expression, establishing forms of control that are quieter, more permanent and harder to challenge than temporary shutdowns.
At the same time, they warned that global companies that own digital platforms — such as Meta and X, on which citizens depend — operate with limited transparency, oversight and accountability, setting rules that shape political discourse without public participation.
For the authors, determining whether “the future of the internet in Africa will be freely connected, conditioned or controlled depends on the actions taken now.”
Source: Lusa
