• In 2023, 18 countries, including eight in Africa, experienced 124 closures.
  • Bright Chimedza recently surveyed 83 Zimbabwe Human Rights Commissioners about their challenges and concerns about Internet shutdowns in order to better support their work.
  • Based on the survey, Bright Chimedza offers five actions to address the risks.

OUR TAKE:
Governments often mistakenly believe that shutting down the Internet can quell unrest, stop the spread of misinformation, reduce the harm of cybersecurity threats, or, as in the case of exam-related shutdowns in Algeria and Iraq, curb cheating.But shutdowns are highly disruptive to economic activity: they bring e-commerce to a halt, cause losses in time-sensitive transactions, increase unemployment, interrupt communication between businesses and customers, and pose financial and reputational risks to companies.
–Fei Wang, BTW Reporter

The situation of the Internet shut down is on the rise. According to Pulse, 18 countries, including eight in Africa, experienced 124 closures in 2023.Although Zimbabwe is not one of these countries, it has experienced several confirmed and alleged shutdowns.These events occur during political unrest or protests, limiting access to information and communication platforms and preventing the spread of near-real-time news and observations.

Also read: World’s longest internet shutdown: How it wreaked havoc in Manipur

This particularly hampers the ability of human rights workers and human rights monitoring organizations to document human rights violations in such times.Without well-designed and systematic counteractions and means to circumvent or mitigate the impact, government-imposed shutdowns will continue to impede the monitoring efforts of human rights programs and human rights organizations.

Also read: The Government Shutdown May or May Not Affect You. Here’s What to Expect

A useful survey

Building on previous advocacy work, Bright Chimedza recently surveyed 83 Zimbabwe Human Rights Commissioners about their challenges and concerns about the Internet shutdown in order to better support them and prepare them to document and monitor human rights violations during the Internet shutdown. Bright Chimedza is a Political Scientist with a passion for electoral processes, civic engagement, and strategic planning.

Little support and investment to prepare for shutdowns

All respondents agreed that the Internet shutdown hindered their organisation’s operations. They have all been restricted several times in the past, which has impeded the free flow of information from monitors to human rights monitoring groups and vice versa.

The survey reveals the anxiety of the Internet shut down in the future, and support for community members to evade government compulsory Internet disruptions and little investment.

  • 50.6% do not invest in predicting Internet shutdowns and do not have experience in this field.
  • 64% do not know organizations providing technical support to circumvent Internet shutdowns.
  • 65.1% believe that Zimbabwe is likely to experience a shutdown in 2024.
  • 65.1% claimed they work for organizations without communication strategies to overcome Internet shutdown challenges. 34.9% indicated that they have communication policies or manuals, but despite these manuals, they struggle to receive reports from their community monitors, particularly those in marginalized areas.
  • 91.6% of the respondents believe that human rights monitoring organizations (HRMOs) must strengthen their circumvention strategies.
  • 92.6% believe that HRPs should develop toolkits to circumvent Internet shutdowns.

Road map for action and mitigation strategies

  • Organize internal and community training sessions focusing on the utilization of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), the Tor network, and mesh networks.
  • Solicit assistance from digital rights activists regarding the utilization of Proxy servers or Hypergiants (HGs). The former act as intermediaries between users and websites, concealing the user’s true location and facilitating access to restricted content. The latter deploy servers within other networks to cater to users within those networks or their clientele. This approach localizes content within the hosting network, thus minimizing traffic crossing network boundaries.
  • Reach out to funding partners to help establish Community Networks in underserved regions of Zimbabwe. Additional information about Community Networks can be found through further research.
  • Allocate resources towards Low Connection Publishing platforms like Text services (Txti). This web service is utilized to generate web pages optimized for slow Internet connections and can consolidate information for convenient access in areas with limited data connectivity.