Internet Shutdowns, Sovereignty, and the Postcolonial State in Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID16850737
AuthorsNicole Stremlau (0000-0002-2728-2293, University of Johannesburg, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume16
Issue2
Pages372-379
Publication date2025-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1758-5880 • E-ISSN: 1758-5899
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1758-5899.13483
OpenAlexW4405694891
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited7

Despite strong international condemnation, there is growing acceptance of internet shutdowns as a legitimate response to online content that governments—particularly in Africa—find concerning. This article explores government decision‐making around internet shutdowns during contentious periods such as elections and in situations of violent conflict. In arguing for a reading of shutdowns that goes beyond simply seeing them as a blunt tool of censorship, it discusses the underlying issues, including the vast inequalities between Big Tech companies based in the United States or China and resource‐poor countries in the Global South. Building on this, the article probes the intensifying disputes around who writes the rules governing how social media companies address harmful content, how such rules are implemented, and, finally, what this means for the postcolonial state in Africa. In some contexts, a government's use of shutdowns represents an effort to reassert sovereignty amid a longstanding context of contestation around borders, power, and national identity

Business · Computer security · Development economics · Economics · Internet privacy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Energy, Economy, and Technology Trends · Law · Media, Communication, and Education · Political theory and Gramsci