Nations paying high cost in bids to block Internet

KAMPALA, Uganda — The mysterious Facebook blogger kept dishing up alleged government secrets. One day it was a shadowy faction looting cash from Uganda’s presidential palace with impunity. The next was a claim that the president was suffering from a debilitating illness.

For authorities in a country that has seen just one president since 1986, the critic who goes by Tom Voltaire Okwalinga is an example of the threat some African governments see in the exploding reach of the Internet — bringing growing attempts to throttle it.

Since 2015, about a dozen African countries have had wide-ranging Internet shutdowns, often during elections. Rights defenders say the blackouts are conducive to carrying out serious abuses.

The Internet outages also can inflict serious damage on the economies of African countries that desperately seek growth, according to research by the Brookings Institution think tank.

Uganda learned that lesson. In February 2016, amid a tight election, authorities shut down access to Facebook and Twitter as anger swelled over delayed delivery of ballots in opposition strongholds. During the blackout, the police arrested the president’s main challenger. More than $2 million was shed from the country’s gross domestic product in just five days of Internet restrictions, the Brookings Institution said.

The shutdowns also have “potential devastating consequences” for education and health, says the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an organization founded by a mobile phone magnate that monitors trends in African governance.

As more countries gain the technology to impose restrictions, rights observers see an urgent threat to democracy.

“The worrying trend of disrupting access to social media around polling time puts the possibility of a free and fair electoral process into serious jeopardy,” said Maria Burnett, associate director for the Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

In the past year, Internet shutdowns during elections have been reported in Gabon, Republic of Congo and Gambia, where a longtime dictator cut off the Internet on the eve of a vote he ultimately lost.

In some English-speaking territories of Cameroon where the locals have accused the central government of marginalizing their language in favor of French, the government has shut down the Internet for several weeks.

Internet advocacy group Access Now earlier estimated that the restrictions in Cameroon have cost local businesses more than $1.39 million.

Just 30 days of Internet restrictions between July 2015 and July 2016 cost Ethiopia’s economy over $8 million, according to figures by the Brookings Institution.

Ben Curtis / Associated Press 2016 A man takes cell phone photos as people hide behind a shop’s security grille during a clash at a campaign rally in 2016 in Kampala, Uganda, which often blocks the Internet at election time.