CAIRO\/DUBAI (Reuters) – Sudanese authorities are blocking access to popular social media platforms used to organize and broadcast nationwide anti-government protests triggered by an economic crisis, internet users say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sudan has been rocked by near-daily demonstrations over the past two weeks. Protesters have set alight ruling party buildings and have called on President Omar al-Bashir, who took power in 1989, to step down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a country where the state tightly controls traditional media, the internet has become a key information battleground. Of Sudan\u2019s 40 million people, some 13 million use the internet and more than 28 million own mobile phones, local media say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities have not repeated the internet blackout they imposed during deadly protests in 2013. But the head of Sudan\u2019s National Intelligence and Security Service, Salah Abdallah, told a rare news conference on Dec. 21: \u201cThere was a discussion in the government about blocking social media sites and in the end it was decided to block them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Users of the three main telecommunications operators in the country \u2014 Zain, MTN and Sudani \u2014 said access to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp has only been possible through use of a virtual private network (VPN).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though VPNs can bring their own connection problems and some Sudanese are unaware of their existence, activists have used them widely to organize and document the demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hashtags in Arabic such as \u201cSudan\u2019s_cities_revolt\u201d have been widely circulated from Sudan and abroad. Hashtags in English such as #SudanRevolts have also been used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSocial media has a really big impact, and it helps with forming public opinion and transmitting what\u2019s happening in Sudan to the outside,\u201d said Mujtaba Musa, a Sudanese Twitter user with over 50,000 followers who has been active in documenting the protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NetBlocks, a digital rights NGO, said data it collected, including from thousands of Sudanese volunteers, provided evidence of \u201can extensive internet censorship regime\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bader al-Kharafi, CEO of parent company Zain Group, told Reuters: \u201cSome websites may be blocked for technical reasons beyond the company\u2019s specialization.\u201dSlideshow (4 Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither the National Telecommunications Corporation, which oversees the sector in Sudan, nor MTN or Sudani could be reached for comment. Twitter and Facebook, which also owns WhatsApp, declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile Sudan has a long history of systematically censoring print and broadcast media, online media has been relatively untouched despite its exponential growth… in recent years,\u201d said Mai Truong of U.S.-based advocacy group Freedom House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe authorities have only now started to follow the playbook of other authoritarian governments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CAIRO\/DUBAI (Reuters) – Sudanese authorities are blocking access to popular social media platforms used to organize and broadcast nationwide anti-government protests triggered by an economic crisis, internet users say. Sudan has been rocked by near-daily demonstrations over the past two weeks. Protesters have set alight ruling party buildings and have called on President Omar al-Bashir, who took power in 1989,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2800,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions\/2800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}