If you have not yet read Trapped, read it first here.

If you were told you would lose access to the internet tomorrow, what would be your first concern? Many facing government-imposed internet shutdowns are worried about more than just their social media presence; their ability to voice their political views or run their businesses is being threatened. Governments use flowery language to justify the shutdowns, citing ‘public safety’ and ‘national security’. Translated into the language of civilians that means protests, political chaos and widespread dissatisfaction. The primary purpose of the internet shutdowns is to prevent the organisation of mass demonstrations and other forms of opposition. According to Access Now, a nonprofit that promotes digital rights internationally, there were 196 shutdowns last year and have been 85 so far this year. An increasing number of regimes in Africa and Asia, including Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and India, seem to have taken a page out of the books of Chinese, Russian and North Korean governments by manipulating internet access to quell freedom of speech and the sharing of information. Unfortunately for them, political opposition generally endures their attempts to squash it, as groups resort to more traditional methods of mobilisation. Nevertheless, the businesses and economies of these countries may not be as resilient as protesters when it comes to being disconnected.

The recent internet shutdowns in Sudan are different to past occurrences because they appear to be synchronised with the atrocities committed by government forces. For example, the internet was completely shut down for 36 days between June 3rd and July 9th while mass killings and other violence was taking place. Here the purpose was clearly to prevent word of the attacks reaching the ears of the international community, and to prevent people in Sudan uniting against their attackers. Reportedly, these forces would also destroy protestors’ mobile phones while they broke up demonstrations. I have tried to capture this sense of helplessness in the poem above; perhaps the feeling of being attacked by your government and unheard by the rest of the world is like being in a room in which the walls are closing in but no one can hear your cries for help.

Another striking example of this economic self-sabotage is the case of Cameroon’s Silicon Mountain. Anglophone Cameroonians have been protesting against political and economic discrimination by the predominantly Francophone government since 2016. Between 17th January and 20th April 2017 the government decided to answer these protests with digital discrimination: they imposed a sustained internet shutdown. This had a catastrophic effect on the country’s budding tech hub, Silicon Mountain, located in the southwest Anglophone region. Many start-ups were forced to close as entrepreneurs lost contracts, and other innovators moved to Europe or the United States for work. Silicon Mountain, and more importantly, Cameroon, lost some of the great minds it needs for technological and economic advancement. According to the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) the cost of the 93-day shutdown was $38.8m USD.

To read more about the economic and business costs of these internet shutdowns, please read my extended article at Young Leverage.