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Why We L👀ked Into This »🎨
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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.
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Timeline of social media bans in Africa
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- 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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