National shutdown
An Internet shutdown taints Togo’s 2020 presidential elections on 21 February 2020.
Internet shutdowns during protests or civil unrest impact the ability of citizens to get accurate information from government sources when they need it most. It also becomes harder for citizens to contact family members and friends in other parts of the country, or in other countries.
- Total Duration 2 days
Togo
- Population
- 9,304,337
- UN Classification
-
- Least Developed Country
Local impact
An Internet shutdown taints Togo’s 2020 presidential elections on 21 February 2020.
Internet shutdowns during protests or civil unrest impact the ability of citizens to get accurate information from government sources when they need it most. It also becomes harder for citizens to contact family members and friends in other parts of the country, or in other countries.
Other supporting information
Starting on election day (22nd February 2020), OONI measurements collected by OONI Probe users in Togo suggest that WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram were blocked on two networks: Togo Telecom (AS24691) and Atlantique Telecom (AS37229). All three apps, however, were accessible on the Canalbox (AS36924) network, showing that blocking differed across ISPs in Togo.
The following chart illustrates the results from the testing of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram across three ISPs in Togo between 21st to 23rd February 2020.
Source: OONI measurements collected from Togo (extract of data used to produce the above chart is available here).
Measurements in the above chart are annotated as “likely blocked” (rather than “confirmed blocked”) due to their relatively limited volume. Yet, the fact that OONI measurements show that these instant messaging apps were accessible in Togo before and after the elections (from 24th February 2020) suggests that they were most likely blocked on election day indeed.
As the blocking of WhatsApp endpoints involved IP addresses that are part of the Amazon AWS Cloud, the block might have potentially led to interference of other services reliant on the Amazon Cloud. However, the block was lifted by 24th February 2020, suggesting that any potential collateral damage was probably short-lived. Similarly, OONI measurements show that Telegram Web and Facebook Messenger were accessible across networks in Togo from 24th February 2020 onwards.
Learn more through OONI’s research report.