Tanzania back online after politically motivated outage

"As noted by outage-watcher NetBlocks and Cloudflare's Radar service, traffic to and from Tanzania dropped to near-zero early on October 29th - the date of national elections for a new president. The poll went ahead despite the government barring opposition candidates from standing. Bizarrely, Gerson Msigwa, Chief Government Spokesman of Tanzania, instructed civil servants to work from home during the outage, without explaining how they could fulfil their duties."

"Internet services became available again in time for Tanzanians to watch the ceremony online, although NetBlocks yesterday posted data that it says shows "widespread restrictions to multiple social media and messaging platforms as Tanzania comes back online after a five-day internet shutdown; the incident continues to limit election transparency and the free flow of information." Which is of course the point of imposing an outage on a country at election time."

"Writing at The Conversation, University of Sussex assistant professor Dan Paget said Hassan has imposed "unprecedented" repression in Tanzania. "By putting her main rival Tundu Lissu on trial for treason and barring others from contesting the presidency, Hassan has crossed autocratic thresholds that other leaders have not. Activists have been arrested, brutalised or disappeared." But Paget also expressed optimism that recent protests in Tanzania suggest the country, population 65-million plus, may have happier times ahead."

Tanzania experienced a near-total internet outage beginning early on October 29th, the date of national presidential elections. The government barred opposition candidates and the poll proceeded while internet traffic fell to near-zero. Government spokesman Gerson Msigwa instructed civil servants to work from home during the outage without explaining how duties could be fulfilled. The election prompted widespread protests that were met with violence reportedly causing at least 500 deaths. President Samia Suluhu Hassan was re-elected and sworn in at a military facility on November 4th. Internet access returned but with reported restrictions to multiple social media and messaging platforms, limiting election transparency. Authorities pursued unprecedented repression, including a treason trial for rival Tundu Lissu and arrests, brutalisation, or disappearance of activists.

Read at Theregister