Troubles with Internet Censorship on the African continent stretch far beyond what we’ve heard from countries like Egypt. Ethiopia, Uganda, Ivory Coast and others have begun filtering the web in fear of protest movements gaining popularity and using social media to organize.
With an Internet penetration rate of only 0.5 percent, the state-owned Ethiopian networking infrastructure blocks a wide range of political opposition and independent news sites which report on the country.
Ethiopian officials recently hijacked an event sponsored by UNESCO, replacing independent journalists with government-approved reporters. They also unblocked a number of sites, probably temporarily, due to the event’s theme of new media and the Internet.
Ethiopia continues to be one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s worst offenders when it comes to Internet freedom. –Al Jazeera
A new method of Internet Censorship, Just-in-Time blocking, has become popular due to protests spreading across the Middle East and North Africa. In this case, sites are blocked temporarily in direct response to protests and other gatherings. On April 14, Uganda’s Communications Commission (UCC) allegedly used this method to block Twitter and Facebook for 24 hours as citizens protested against rising food and fuel prices.
Ugandan Commissioner of Police Andrew Kaweesi has called cyberactivism a Western phenomenon, stating that “governments need to come up with an enabling law that guards against misuse of communication networks to protect social values and national identity,” and called for regulation of online publications.
With only 5.6 per cent of the total global online population, Africa lags behind the rest of the world. Even with efforts to get more Africans online, they run the risk of increased Internet filtering and incarceration. While countries like Egypt and Sudan have mostly open access to the Internet, dozens of bloggers have been arrested in Egypt and the Sudanese government is known to use social networking to track down protesters.
Will the cost that citizens will have to pay be worth having widespread Internet access?
via Al Jazeera English.