Video testimonials: Life without Internet in Chad - Internet Sans Frontières

Internet Without Borders is still concerned about the current Internet shutdown in Chad. The country’s authorities continue to suspend the population’s access to the main communication services: Viber, Whatsapp, and Facebook.
So far, the two main telephone operators Airtel and Tigo evoke, laconic, “technical reasons”.

Nevertheless, the correlation between the times of shutdowns and the political events that have shaken Chad for two years show that this practice of internet blackout is voluntary and ordered by the government. The measurements taken by the observer of the application OONI, partner of Internet Without Borders, show that the main targets of the censorship are the social networks.

This total censorship of social networks has been ongoing for a month (March 28, 2018)

In collaboration with Access Now, we are collecting testimonials about life without the Internet in Chad. Blaise Noubarassem, the head of our office in N’Djaména, has collected the following testimonials:

Clothere Mbairane, presenter of the TIC Monde broadcast on Télé Tchad, denounces the absurd censorship of social networks in his country. For him, to cut off social networks is  to cut off the Internet “because the primary source of information is that circulating on these networks.

Internet shutdowns and censorship of social networks also have a significant cost for the digital emerging economic activity in Chad.

Mokota Ngarmadjibaye, Manager of a Cyber Cafe in N’Djamena, says: “The slowness of the Internet has a negative effect on my business and  activities. I lose clients from day to day “

For Sosthene Mbernodji, co-ordinator of a civil society organization for freedoms in Chad (MCPL), censorship of social networks is a clear violation of freedoms. For him, “the world has become a village from which Chadians are excluded because of this censorship of social networks”.

The censorship of social networks has an impact on the circulation of news for the online press in Chad. They are often directly targeted when the access to information sites becomes impossible without using a VPN.

For Djimet Wiche, director of Alwhida info, Internet censorship “forces journalists to cross the border and go to Kousseri (Cameroon) to publish articles”. He also denounces the shortfall caused by the slowing down of the network and the censorship of social networks which severely limits the traffic and access of Chadian Internet users to the information of his site.

If you wish to help us, you can also send your story and your personal point of view concerning this blocking, via this form in Français  العَرَبِيَّة‎  English