Digital blackouts, including total internet shutdowns, throttling, and targeted platform blocking during crises, are becoming an entrenched governance tool across Africa, with at least 15 recorded on the continent in 2025, six in Central Africa alone. In Gabon, social media access has been blocked since February amid social unrest and strikes in the education and health sectors, cutting off approximately 800,000 users, about 32 per cent of the population, from platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
Governments typically cite stability and social cohesion to justify these shutdowns. But while blackouts allow states to control the narrative in the short term, they exacerbate rifts and tensions in the medium term and carry lasting socioeconomic costs. The internet and social media have created a new category of political actors whistleblowers, influencers, online journalists, and political commentators who amplify alternative voices, particularly among youth and diaspora communities. Unable to control these actors, many governments resort to digital isolation.
The economic costs are substantial. NetBlocks estimates average daily losses from social media restrictions in Gabon at around CFA1 billion, nearly CFA30 billion a month. Internet and social media use extend far beyond activism, encompassing online business, employment, healthcare, education, and the gig economy. Small-scale e-commerce sellers, delivery drivers, and content creators who rely heavily on social media see their businesses and living standards decline during blackouts.
Chad holds the regional record for a 472-day social media shutdown between 2018 and 2019, followed by a targeted shutdown in February 2024. Equatorial Guinea experienced a 14-month targeted shutdown on Annobón Island from August 2024. Beyond Central Africa, Tanzania cut internet access during the 2025 election and post-election unrest, and Uganda did the same during its 2026 general elections. The United Nations requires internet shutdowns to comply with the criteria of legality, legitimacy, necessity, and proportionality, but in neither Gabon nor Congo-Brazzaville do the governments’ reasons appear to meet these criteria.
From a governance perspective, digital isolations erode trust in institutions, widening the divide between governments and citizens. In Gabon, the new regime is straining its relationship with the very citizens who backed the 2023 coup. In Congo-Brazzaville, the blackout lends credibility to suspicions that the election outcome was a foregone conclusion. Regulating the digital space while safeguarding fundamental rights to freedom of expression and access to information sits at the heart of Central Africa’s political future.
