Don’t shut Internet down during general election - CSOs tell govt - Adomonline.com

A group of civil society organizations (CSOs) have appealed to the government not to shut down internet access under any condition during this year’s election period.

This comes in the wake of some 24 countries who have imposed Internet shutdowns in the past during their election years, which hindered the full enjoyment of a wide range of fundamental rights and freedoms.

With billions of people at risk of shutdowns during election periods, she said the stakes for democracy and human rights this year were higher than ever. She, therefore, urged the government not to disrupt access to the Internet as it violated fundamental human rights.

The workshop was part of the KeepItOn campaign, which was launched by Access Now in 2016 to help unite and organise the efforts of activists and organisations across the world to end internet shutdowns.

The one-day workshop which took place in Accra last Monday, is part of activities to promote internet freedom in the country during this year’s election period to ensure fairness, credibility and transparency.

It empowered the participants to effectively mobilise and tackle threats of Internet shutdown as well as some proactive ways they can engage in to ensure that network shutdowns are mitigated.

“A lot of governments would shut down internet during election periods with excuses that it is for national security reasons but we need them to stop using that as an excuse and rather look at increasing the access to improve national discourse,” she added.