Global Courant
Last November, Kenya suffered an unexpected shutdown of Telegram, one of the most popular social media platforms. The outage lasted eight days and coincided with the national exams for secondary school students. It led people to believe that the to block was a measure to prevent cheating in the university entrance exams as the app was offline only on the day the exams took place. This concern was not as far-fetched as the Kenya National Examinations Council monitoring team had previously made it out to be identified over 32 social media platforms used to share, sell and post exam materials. Six Telegram administrators were arrested for investigation malpractice.
The shutdown had a huge impact on the economy and cost the country a million euros estimated $27 million. NetBlocks, an internet rights organization, calculated the economic cost of the shutdown using indicators from the World Bank and the ITU, which estimate in monetary terms the economic benefits generated in a country by uninterrupted internet and social media use. For every day that Telegram was unavailable, the companies and the country lost an estimated Ksh537 million ($3.4 million) in lost sales, wages and economic benefits that are estimated to result from the use of the application in Kenya. Unfortunately, Kenya’s $27 billion loss only underlines the devastating cost of social media shutdowns in Africa.
The cost of social media shutdowns across Africa
The growing concern about internet is shut down has played the leading role in Africa. At least 12 countries as of 2020 to have Sin Africa the internet has been shut down at least 19 times. In 2020, the Nigerian government suspended the use of Twitter in the country due to security concerns. Twitter’s seven-month shutdown cost the Nigerian economy US$26.1 billion ($10.72 trillion). Last year Senegal experienced a series of internet outages and social media shutdowns following widespread protests. In 2023, Sub-Saharan Africa witnessed a financial setback of US$1.74 billion during 30,785 hours of internet outages, affecting 84.8 million people. Top10VPN revealed in research. The main reasons for the closures were protests, information control, conflict, military coups and election interference. Ethiopiafor example, blocked social media and messaging services for 158 days amid religious tensions and anti-government protests, losing nearly $43 million.
Social media platforms have been critical to the growth of Africa’s gig economy. This includes opportunities for online entrepreneurs, influencers and content creators. Kenya, for example, is home to TikToks highest usage worldwide. The country has a whopping 54% of global TikTok usage, while the global average is just 16%. In the same vein, Telegram is a top social media platform in Kenya, with an estimated 15.6 million users. Shutting down social media is not only harmful to the economy, but also to society. Social media has bridged the digital divide and connected underdeveloped communities to the world. A shutdown not only limits access to information, communication, education and government services, but also violates the digital rights and freedom of the people. Ultimately, this depresses Africa’s progress towards a digitally connected future.
Typically, apps like Telegram use a complex encryption system that makes them difficult to block or monitor by authorities. This means that authorities may have to resort to more drastic measures, such as blocking the entire internet or using advanced technologies, to target Telegram. Telegram users may have access to alternative ways to bypass the shutdown, such as using VPNs, proxy servers, or other encrypted services. The government can also force internet service providers (ISPs) or mobile operators to limit or throttle traffic to Telegram, slowing or disrupting the app’s performance. However, this method may also affect other services or apps that use the same ISPs or operators.
Although the first social media outage was reported in Kenya last year (internet has been generally uninterrupted in the country, even into 2022 when elections were held). However, last year there was a petition to shut down TikTok. The petitioner, Bob Ndolo, alleged that TikTok promotes violence, explicit sexual content, hate speech, vulgar language and offensive behavior among youth, which pose a serious threat to Kenya’s cultural and religious values. The social networking market in Africa is expected to grow by 6.21% in 2027. And social media platforms could do that too contributions up to $57 billion to the African economy by 2024, creating 3.5 million jobs. The increasing frequency and duration of social media (and petition) shutdowns in Africa pose a serious threat to the continent’s economic and social development.
