Rwanda’s Resilient and Consistent Censorship Regime
By: Arthur Gwagwa
Key Findings
- The Open Observatory on Interference (OONI) technical measurements collected between1st July 2018 to 15th November reveal web connectivity anomalies caused by Domain Name System (DNS)-based censorship.
- Manual tests on a sample of 5 of the technically tested websites done on the Chrome browser between 7 and 9 October found them inaccessible, whereas the same websites were accessible on Opera with built-in VPN.
- All the websites, with the exception of one, which presented connectivity anomalies, are owned or run by Rwandans and all carry vernacular content critical of the government.
- The censorship regime in Rwanda is not necessarily responsive to key political events as censorship has continued despite the recent presidential pardons.
- Future threat
modelling of digital threats shouldtherefore take into account the consistent and resilient nature of Rwanda’s censorship regime.
Read the full report on this link
N.B: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the African Academic Network on Internet Policy
