Internet Access Is a Fundamental Human Right

In November this year, the KeepItOn campaign will celebrate its seventh birthday. The campaign, begun by digital rights watchdog and NGO Access Now in 2016, was designed to fight state-sanctioned internet shutdowns and social media bans, and has become a leading light in the fight for free speech, free communication and democracy.

At the time of writing, KeepItOn has more than 300 members in 105 countries, and #KeepItOn regularly trends as a hashtag on social media during anti-government protests and in election season, especially in countries ranking lower on the Democracy Index.

Freedom of speech in Africa experienced enormous post-Cold War growth, from two thirds of African states being deemed “not free” by the National Democratic Institute in 1989, to two-thirds being deemed “free” or “partly free” in 2009. This achievement is at risk of becoming considered nothing more than a pendulum swing in the long march to all African people enjoying socio-political freedom, with African citizens’ rights being impinged at an accelerating pace.

The campaign has become more relevant since 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated a decline of democracy across the globe, and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular. The number of states led by authoritarian regimes is on the rise – and, as authoritarianism metastasises, so too do internet shutdowns.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described “an epidemic” of coups in 2021, with four out of the six attempted that year being successful. Another five takeovers were attempted in 2022, and Niger President Mohamed Bazoum was deposed and detained by his Presidential Guard just weeks ago, on 26 July 2023.

Coups d’état are perhaps the most eye-catching, most recognisable violation of democratic process. Many states in Africa are being subjected to far more subtle, consistent and pervasive erosions of their political freedoms. Freedom of the press is in decline. Peaceful demonstrations are regularly turned violent by police donning full riot gear, so-called ‘defensive weapons’ and tear gas canisters. As the transformative and democratic potential of the internet grows, so too does the incentive for authoritarian regimes to curb citizens’ access to it, especially in the face of protests and elections, the two greatest existential threats to repressive regimes.

At the close of 2022, KeepItOn published a report on the state of worldwide internet shutdown trends. In 2022, the year that Russia invaded Ukraine and repeatedly targeted its internet, the number of worldwide shutdowns was 3 more than the 184 of 2021, and shutdowns were recorded in one state more than the 34 in 2021. 33 of the 35 countries were repeat offenders in the 6-year window since KeepItOn launched.

Internet shutdowns in 2022 were at a post-pandemic high, with 187 shutdowns confirmed. Excluding those imposed by India (responsible for half of all shutdowns recorded by KeepItOn), the number was the highest on record. While optimistic, the report acknowledged in its statistics, and its evaluation of them, that the fate of the internet in developing nations fighting for fully-fledged democracy was in the balance. Nowhere was this more obvious than in Africa.

The lens of internet access implied that speech in Africa was freer in 2022 than in 2021. Kenya upheld its promise not to impede internet access, and the Gambia ensured internet access during its election, having failed to do so in 2016. 9 shutdowns were observed on the continent, a 53% reduction on the previous year. In Ethiopia and Uganda, however, two statistics suggested that the internet was becoming a more popular tool for undemocratic governments: the internet shutdown in Tigray, the longest worldwide, exceeded 2 continuous years, while Uganda’s Facebook block reached 719 days on New Year’s Eve.

2023 is proving a decisive year for African democracy and the role of the internet in government transitions. Internet access has been restored in the majority of Tigray, after the peace agreement signed in November 2022 came into effect in February, though parts of the secessionist territory remain offline. Uganda’s Facebook ban persists, a continuous suspension lasting 940 days at the time of writing. By the conclusion of 2023, elections will have been held in 11 countries, all of whom have restricted the internet since 2016.

As of early August 2023, 4 nations have held elections so far this year: Benin, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Mauritania. Both Nigeria and Sierra Leone sabotaged internet access in 2022, Sierra Leone twice in response to anti-government protests; Nigeria’s block of Twitter met such vocal opposition from human rights groups that West African politico-economic union ECOWAS ruled the move unconstitutional. Fast forward to today, and all 4 nations have conducted elections without reports of internet disruption. Mauritania, however, suspended the internet twice earlier in 2023, once in response to protests.

Whilst these statistics are encouraging, the 7 nations yet to hold elections may not follow the template of the first 4, and the governments of multiple countries who will not go to elections this year have violated the right to internet access. Senegal has suspended its internet twice, both times to stifle the countless voices resisting the likely contrived imprisonment of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Sudan, ravaged by civil war between factions of its military, has experienced protracted internet blackouts.

Zimbabwe will be next in the list of African elections to be held in 2023, taking place in less than two weeks, on 23 August. The nation, yet to experience a ruling party other than that of late dictator Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF since its independence in 1980, has repeatedly suppressed the public’s right to free speech, using internet outage as a weapon against protests multiple times. The public must have access to the internet during the elections, as incumbent President Mnangagwa, once Mugabe’s spy chief, feels the threat of enormously popular opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa, whose Citizens’ Coalition for Change party has dominated all independent voting intention surveys to date.