A Surfshark report revealed that 72 of the 193 United Nations countries have blocked or severely restricted access to social media in the past seven years. African and Asian countries block access to social networks the most, while in Australia and Oceania there are no cases of restrictions.
“The practice of limiting access to social networks is often the product of undemocratic governments that seek to suppress the freedom of citizens,” says the report made in the United Nations based on 193 countries.
“The shutdown of social media services has become an increasingly popular measure by oppressive regimes to control public sentiment and freedom of expression. The tendency to block access to social networks is especially prevalent in countries where state authorities own or control Internet infrastructure. This allows the authorities to quickly employ sporadic closures to disrupt the expected movements of the democratic public,” the study states.
In one in three countries, there have been systematic restrictions on social media since 2015. Most of the cuts have been related to political or social events such as elections, referendums and protests, according to Surfshark.
In addition, 72 out of 193 countries have blocked or severely restricted access to social media in the past seven years. Some of the most recent cases of blockades occurred in Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia, Cuba, Azerbaijan, Myanmar, among others. China, for its part, is currently blocking all foreign social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In fact, Asia is the strictest continent when it comes to shutting down social networks.
“China has no mercy on foreign social networks, but it does have an entire ecosystem of China-based social media platforms, such as WeChat, Weibo, QQ and Qzone,” the report states.
In the Americas, six countries have blocked social networks in the past. Venezuela has done so 12 times since 2019; Ecuador blocked Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp in 2019; Brazil banned WhatsApp in 2016; and Cuba blocked Skype in 2017. Nicaragua and Colombia are also part of the list.
“Social media outages and internet shutdowns in Venezuela began when Juan Guaido proclaimed himself interim president of Venezuela in 2019, following the 2018 elections, widely considered fraudulent,” the study states.
“In an attempt to prevent the broadcasting of as many of Guaidó's speeches, Nicolás Maduro's government blocked access to social media every time Guaido or his associates made public appearances or broadcast live. Similar cases were recorded at least 12 times in 2019″, the publication concludes.
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