Visualizing a Timeline of Social Media Bans and Outages in Africa

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Why We Lked Into This » Nigeria’s President had just suspended social media site, Twitter and Uganda’s government restricted social media during elections. We researched social media bans and outages in African countries and why.

Timeline of Social Media Bans and Outages

• Since the late 2000s when social media apps became popular within African countries, some have been restricted or banned.
• Mali, Egypt, Uganda and Chad are African countries that have banned or frequently restricted social media apps within the last decade.

 

 

• The longest bans/restrictions have been recorded in:
  • Nigeria (Twitter for 222 days from June 2021 to January 2022);
  • Chad (given to WhatsApp in 2018 for 16 months);
  • Egypt (in September 2019, shut down social media initially for a week, then 100 days).
• The Southern African region of the continent has not witnessed bans or restrictions.

 

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Are Social Media Bans for Any Good?

• Most social media restrictions have been centered around governance, politics or elections. However, in Algeria, social media has been limited during annual high school exams to prevent cheating.

 

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