Follow us on FROM TOI PRINT EDITION Can govt shut down the internet when faced with dissent? Here’s what West Africa’s Community Court of Justice decreed last year March 1, 2021, 7:56 PM IST Part 4 of the ‘Free to Air’ series
Internet shutdowns are one of the stock responses used by governments to curb anticipated law and order violations. But apart from making communication between dissidents onerous, every shutdown extracts a heavy toll on day-to-day life – important government announcements are not disseminated, medical appointments are missed, access to online educational resources stultified. Are such blanket shutdowns legal? In 2020, the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was faced with precisely this question. Three years earlier, in the wake of protests against the amendments to the Togolese Constitution altering the presidential term limit, the government imposed a shutdown of internet services in the interest of national security and public order.