South Sudan Blocks Social Media Access Amid Unrest

Nairobi — The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on South Sudanese authorities to reverse its social media ban and to ensure that the public has open and reliable internet access, which is essential for news gathering amid unrest in the country.

“Blocking social media access is a blanket act of censorship and a disproportionate response to unrest that makes it difficult for journalists to do their jobs and robs the public of the diverse sources of news,” said CPJ Africa program coordinator, Muthoki Mumo. “South Sudanese authorities should immediately lift this social media suspension.”

On January 22, South Sudan’s telecommunications regulator, the National Communication Authority, directed all internet service providers to “block access to all social media accounts” for a “minimum of 30 days” and a “maximum of 90 days,” according to a copy of the authority’s letter reviewed by CPJ as well as multiple media reports.

The Authority said it issued its suspension orders to stop the social media spread of footage showing the killings of South Sudanese nationals in neighbouring Sudan, which triggered violent protests in South Sudan, including “revenge” killings of Sudanese nationals. Authorities in Juba on January 17 imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in response to the unrest.

On the evening of January 22, at least two telecom providers – Zain South Sudan and MTN South Sudan – published notices on Facebook warning users that TikTok and Facebook would no longer be accessible. In the afternoon of January 23, CPJ spoke to two South Sudanese journalists and two South Sudanese human rights defenders who said that Facebook and TikTok were inaccessible without the use of a virtual private network (VPN), a encryption tool that can bypass censorship.

“We journalists are using VPNs to work. What we don’t know is whether our audience is receiving [our news],” said Mariak Bol, editor-in-chief of Hot in Juba, a news site that also publishes content on Facebook.

In a press briefing on January 23, the Authority’s director general Napoleon Adok Gai said that there was a possibility that the social media ban would be lifted within 72 hours, according to media reports.

Reached via telephone, South Sudan’s information minister Michael Makuei declined to comment. Calls to the National Communication Authority were not immediately answered.

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