2023-07-10 10:41:20
Since 2015, 62 countries have blocked access to social networks or messaging applications (voice over IP, instant messaging). If we count the cuts and other restrictions of access to the Internet, this figure climbs to 77. This is what emerges from a study covering 196 countries carried out by Surfshark, a company specializing in privacy protection and online data security.
These restrictions are mainly the work of undemocratic governments. As our map shows, the vast majority of countries that have blocked access to social networks or messaging in recent years are located in Africa and Asia. In most cases, the restrictions are temporary and aim to limit or control the flow of information during unrest and political events (elections, demonstrations, conflicts, coups, etc.). Among the most recent cases is Senegal, where shutdowns of several platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram, were reported last month during protests against the conviction of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Access to has since been restored.
According to Surfshark, restrictions are currently still in place in around 20 countries (as of July 4, 2023). In China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Myanmar and Turkmenistan, it is mainly foreign social networks that have been banned by the authorities, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It should be noted that China has in parallel developed its own national ecosystem of applications, with for example WeChat, Weibo and QQ. As for the countries of the Arabian Peninsula – United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Yemen – they restrict the use of WhatsApp, Telegram and more generally calls made via the Internet (voice over IP).
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