Shutdowns on social media services have become an increasingly popular measure for oppressive regimes to control public sentiment and freedom of speech. The tendency to block access to social media sites is especially prevalent in countries where state authorities own or control the internet infrastructure. This enables the authorities to quickly employ sporadic shutdowns to disrupt the expected movements of the democratic public.
Our live social media shutdown tracker is being continuously updated with new cases of disruptions based on people’s reports and global news stories.
Report it hereAfrican and Asian countries block access to social media the most, while Australia and Oceania had zero recorded cases of social media restrictions.
The practice of limiting social media access is usually the product of anti-democratic governments seeking to suppress citizens’ freedom.
Social media blocking in most countries is more of an on-and-off occurrence instead of a permanent decision.
There are 6 countries with ongoing bans on social media – all of them in Asia.
In 1 out of 3 countries systematic social media restrictions have been reported since 2015. Most of the outages have been related to political or societal events such as elections, referendums and protests.
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have blocked or heavily restricted access to social media in the past six years
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August 30, 2021
Internet disrupted in South Sudan amid anti-government planned protests organised by the People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA), which is calling for the leadership to resign.
SourceAugust 12, 2021
Social media platforms Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and messaging apps Messenger and WhatsApp have been restricted on multiple internet providers in Zambia amid presidential and parliamentary elections.
SourceJuly 12, 2021
Partial restrictions have been placed on social media and messaging platforms following widespread protests against socialist government’s policies and rising prices.
SourceJune 5, 2021
Nigeria banned Twitter after the social media site removed a post by President Muhammadu Buhari threatening secessionists.
SourceMarch 26, 2021
Facebook and Messenger restricted in Bangladesh amid Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
SourceMarch 21, 2021
Republic of the Congo shutdown the internet on the day of presidential elections, Sunday 21 March 2021.
SourceMarch 5, 2021
The arrest of the opposition leader Ousmane Sonko in Senegal has led to demonstrations in Dakar. Restrictions of online services have been reported after the clashes between police and the protesters spurred.
SourceFebruary 28, 2021
Following a raid at the property of Yaya Dillo, a representative of Chad's opposition, access to the internet form within the country was being hindered.
SourceFebruary 1, 2021
As the Myanmar military took power over the weekend following their accusations of election fraud, internet disruption affected large parts of the country on February 1, 2021.
SourceJanuary 23, 2021
On 2021, January 23. Internet disrupted in Russia amid anti-Kremlin protests.
SourceJanuary 12, 2021
On January 12, 2021, Uganda orders social media blocking ahead of election.
SourceNovember 30, 2020
Social media disrupted on November 30, 2020 amid protests in Havana by a group calling for artistic rights.
SourceOctober 27, 2020
On the eve of general elections, October 27, 2020, Tanzania saw disruption to social media and online communication platforms.
SourceSeptember 27, 2020
Following clashes with Armenia on September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan authorities restricted access to many popular social media and communication platforms.
SourceSeptember 13, 2020
On September 13, 2020, Algerian authorities restricted social media access and cut internet connection nation-wide to prevent exam papers from leaking and discourage cheating among students.
SourceThe social media censorship tracker analyzes the global situation by looking at five regions and highlighting the most prominent cases of interruptions. Bellow we deep dive into the regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania.
31 countries blocked social media in the past
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Cutting off access to social media is a common practice in African countries, especially during elections, protests, demonstrations, or exams.
31 out of 54 countries in Africa have blocked access to social media
platforms since 2015.
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Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Burundi, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Togo, Tanzania, Benin, DRC, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Zambia have restricted access to social media in the past due to elections.
Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, DRC, Mali, Senegal, South Sudan, Zimbabwe have restricted access to social media in the past due to protests and demonstrations.
People fear that the government will resurrect the bill since they’ve been vocal about social media regulations again. The authorities justify such attempts by claiming they want to manage fake news and hate speech. Still, the public sees questionable social media laws as a means to stifle online expression.
Nigeria’s government proposed a “frivolous petitions” bill to regulate social media. The punishment for social media posts criticizing the said law would be jail time and a $10,000 fine. However, following widespread public criticism, the bill was withdrawn.
23 countries blocked social media in the
past and 6 are currently blocking social media
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From total Western social media shutdown to blocking Youtube because of leaked sexual content portraying politicians, more than half of all Asian countries have been limiting access to social media.
29 out of 46 countries in Asia have been cracking
down on social media usage since 2015
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Shows no mercy to foreign social media, but they have an entire ecosystem of Chinese-based social media platforms like WeChat, Weibo, QQ, and Qzone.
The authorities blocked YouTube twice in 2016 following the release of sex videos depicting Georgian politicians.
Has blocked social media platforms after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict flared up in September, 2020.
5 countries blocked social media in the past
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While North America doesn’t have recorded cases in social media restrictions, several countries in South America have dipped their toes in it.
5 countries out of 35 have practiced social media blocking in
the Americas since 2015
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Social media disruptions and internet shutdowns in Venezuela began when Juan Guaido swore himself in as an interim president of Venezuela in 2019, following the 2018 elections that were widely deemed fraudulent.
In an attempt to stop as many Guaido speeches from airing, Nicolas Maduro’s government blocked access to social media anytime Guaido or his associates went on public appearances or livestreamed. Similar cases were recorded at least 12 times in 2019.
4 countries blocked social media in the past
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While there are no recorded social media bans in Western Europe, the East of the continent tells a different story.
There have been cases reported in 4 out of 44 countries in South to Eastern Europe restricting access to social media services
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There are currently no recorded social media blocks in Australia and Oceania.
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Almost one in three countries have blocked social media either permanently or sporadically since 2015.
While governments justify restricting social media due to security reasons, more often than not
it happens amidst protests and demonstrations.
The constraints of our methodology mean that there may be cases of social media blockings that have gone unnoticed or unreported, and numbers are likely to change if and when new information becomes available.
The data measures social media blockings from 2015 till the present day. Social media was conceptualized as social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube etc.) and communication apps, including VoIPs (i.e. Skype, WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber). Both local and national social media blockings have been taken into account in the study.
The data was collected through open-source information from Freedom House, Netblocks and reputable news reports.
