(Johannesburg) – The Mozambican authorities should immediately end internet restrictions imposed since October 25, 2024, and restore full access to social media platforms, Human Rights Watch said today. Internet restrictions and shutdowns violate multiple rights including access to information, freedom of speech, and peaceful protest, and people’s ability to earn a living through online business.
The restrictions follow the government security forces’ violent crackdown on opposition supporters who peacefully marched across the country to protest the October general elections results. The deputy minister of transportation and communications, Amilton Alissone, told the media that internet services would be restored only when the necessary conditions were in place, but did not issue a public shutdown order or set out the conditions.
“The Mozambique government’s arbitrary restrictions on internet access violate human rights and should be lifted immediately,” said Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The shutdown inhibits people’s ability to receive and use life-saving information, to assemble peacefully, and to express their political opinions in a time of crisis.”
On October 24, the Mozambican election commission announced that Daniel Chapo and the ruling party Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, FRELIMO) had won the elections. Beginning the following day, people across the country reported internet connection disruptions, after Venâncio Mondlane, an independent candidate supported by the leading opposition party, Partido Optimista pelo Desenvolvimento de Moçambique (Optimistic People for the Development of Mozambique, PODEMOS), posted calls for nationwide protests on his Facebook account.
Mobile data providers including Vodacom, Movitel, and TMcel acknowledged in a text message sent to customers on October 31 that “access to some social networks is temporarily restricted for reasons beyond our control.”
Cloudflare, a widely used US company that provides web security services and publishes data on internet disruptions, showed that four mobile and internet shutdowns have occurred in the past two weeks in Mozambique. It said that mobile and internet connectivity was shut down beginning at approximately noon local time on October 25, and occurred on at least three other instances, on November 3, 4, and 5.
From October 29 onward, OONI Explorer, a project that monitors internet censorship, recorded a potential blocking of social media platforms and messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and WhatsApp.
Mozambique’s communications regulatory body, the National Communications Institute of Mozambique (INCM), vaguely addressed the issue, without providing any detailed information, including the legal framework to justify the restrictions.
In a statement quoted in the media and reviewed by Human Rights Watch, the INCM said it had “followed with concern the use of telecommunications networks in the country to publish videos and messages that promote and encourage violent demonstrations and other acts of disobedience and social destabilization.” The statement cited the Law on Telecommunications, claiming that such videos constitute “fraudulent traffic” and a “threat to the preservation of national security.”
The internet restrictions have inflicted significant harm on the rights and livelihoods of residents, Human Rights Watch said. Three online traders told Human Rights Watch that their inability to promote their products on social media platforms severely hampered their activities.
A 26-year-old mother of three, who sells clothes via the WhatsApp Business platform, said: “I am not making any money because nobody is viewing my products on WhatsApp. I also cannot go out and sell because of the violent protests on the streets. How are we going to pay our bills like this?”
The restrictions have also severely affected students, who had transitioned to online classes during the street protests that the police violently repressed. A 19-year-old university student said: “For more than a week now, I cannot use WhatsApp to exchange information with classmates or download reading materials the lecturer sent. The mobile internet is very unstable, and I can barely connect to Zoom to attend online classes. I am very worried and anxious because this is exams season.”
The United Nations Human Rights Committee in its General comment on freedom of expression under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Mozambique is party, obligates governments to ensure that any restrictions on information online are provided by law, are a necessary and proportionate response to a specific threat, and are in the public interest. It also states that governments are prohibited from blocking or hindering internet connectivity in relation to peaceful assemblies.
The Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights provides that governments are not to engage in or condone any disruption of access to the internet and other digital technologies for segments of the public or an entire population.
Various UN experts have emphasized the incompatibility of internet shutdowns with international human rights law, and urged states to refrain from imposing internet shutdowns “designed to prevent access to and exchange of election-related information, mobilization and participation in peaceful protests and monitoring of such protests.”
Internet service providers should make all feasible efforts to avoid or mitigate harm from orders to restrict access, including by interpreting requests narrowly and imposing the least intrusive restrictions possible, and legally challenging unwarranted disruptions of service. They should also give customers advance notice of shutdowns, and disclose the government’s role and legal basis for restricting access to networks and services. They should prioritize their responsibilities under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and avoid complicity in human rights abuses.
“The lack of transparency around Mozambique’s internet restrictions fuels the perception that they are meant to suppress peaceful protests and public criticism of the government,” Ngari said. “Amid ongoing unrest, the Mozambican government should immediately restore internet access to facilitate people’s access to crucial information.”
UPDATE: On November 18, all the three mobile phone companies operating in Mozambique sent text messages to their customers confirming that internet services had been fully restored. They did not provide any explanation as for why the internet services were disrupted in the first place.
