Central African Republic Attempts To Quiet Unrest By Suspending Text Messaging

from the well-that-won't-work dept

Mon, Jun 9th 2014 2:04pm — Timothy Geigner

When it comes to protests and unrest, the community of nations just seems to love to shoot themselves in the foot. All manner of strategies to combat disquiet have been rolled out, from the water cannons, to banning protests themselves, to screwing with the text messaging networks of citizens. Those last two examples are both from Ukraine, back when a pro-Russia leader was attempting to keep control in a nation in turmoil. We all know how that worked out: the leader was expelled, replaced with someone else, and then Russia decided to annex parts of the country. Not the best outcome those of us that love secular democracy could have hoped for, but the lasting point is that simply trying to bury or ban protesters doesn't tend to work all that well.

The next nation that is likely to learn this lesson is the Central African Republic, a small republic that is seriously smack-dab in the middle of Africa. This nation that has a human rights abuse list longer than the wait to see American Veteran's doctor has been experiencing protests and unrest lately and has decided their best course of action is to flip the off switch on text messaging.

The prime minister of the Central African Republic is defending his decision to temporarily ban text messaging in a bid to combat spiraling unrest. Prime Minister Andre Nzapayeke said the C.A.R. is "at war."

"We must choose: freedom or keep people from the hands of criminals. For us, we choose protection of the people," said Nzapayeke.

Frankly, it's a bit refreshing to see a nation's leader flat out dismiss freedom for security. You usually don't see that since the people having their freedom taken from them in the name of security tend not to like it all that much. That's probably all the more true when those people are already suffering under conditions that include human trafficking, female genital mutilation, corruption, extrajudicial executions, rape and torture.

Even with that being said, these kind of moves so rarely work out well for the government that I wonder why anyone bothers trying them any longer. Throughout the Arab Spring, government after government attempted to cripple technology and communication amongst their own people in an attempt to remain in power, and in most cases it failed to do anything besides piss off the people even more. Ditto in Ukraine. If history is a teacher worth it's salt, the banning of text messaging in C.A.R. backfiring completely seems like a pretty safe prediction to make. Maybe the government there should actually attempt to address their people's grievances instead. Naaaah.

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Filed Under: central african republic, civil unrest, free speech, protests, text messaging

11 Comments

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Mason Wheeler (profile), 9 Jun 2014 @ 2:52pm

Maybe the government there should actually attempt to address their people's grievances instead. Naaaah.

Not much they can do when the people's grievances are that the government is causing too many problems for them.
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AricTheRed (profile), 9 Jun 2014 @ 3:01pm

Awesome Idea guys!
You know how I know? Cause that strategy worked SOOOoooo good with my 15 year old daughter.

They better get redy for a real tantrum.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jun 2014 @ 3:11pm

That means people will have to talk to each other, rather than exchange cryptic messages, so they might become better informed and organized.
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Rich Kulawiec, 9 Jun 2014 @ 3:42pm

"Frankly, it's a bit refreshing to see a nation's leader flat out dismiss freedom for security."

Oh, I don't know: you can almost set your watch by the regular schedule of very similar pronouncements from US government officials and their shills.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jun 2014 @ 4:29pm

Screw freedom. Safety and security all the way to the bank!
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zip, 9 Jun 2014 @ 5:04pm

relative importance
In such a dirt-poor country like CAR, where most people can expect to die before reaching the age of 50, and where an iPhone costs more than the typical person's annual income, somehow I tend to doubt that, for the vast majority of people, the issue of government censorship would rank anywhere near the importance of life essentials like clean water and food -- or not being killed in the inter-tribal warfare, genocide, and civil wars endemic to this part of the world.

That being said, I'm at least glad to see that the CAR government is open and honest about banning text messaging there. Here in the USA, both government and corporations rarely admit to anything, and in response to any kind of enforcement action, would prefer to pretend that it's some kind of technical problem that they're working hard to fix.
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Lorpius Prime (profile), 9 Jun 2014 @ 5:49pm

While such a ban is stupid, CAR has far, far bigger problems right now. The "government" doesn't really wield authority outside the capital, and its existence is only sustained by French and African Union soldiers. It's pretty much the most impoverished country in the world, and it's lately been going through a really horrific civil war and religious pogroms that have further compounded its already dismal situation.
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Cecil, 9 Jun 2014 @ 6:18pm

C.a.r.
that include human trafficking, female genital mutilation, corruption, extrajudicial executions, rape and torture.
And we're different how? Oh yeah, no mutilation...
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McCrea (profile), 10 Jun 2014 @ 12:00am

But, but, but...
They're not banning the content of text messages, they're only banning the metadata.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2014 @ 5:04am

Re: C.a.r.
Only male genital mutilation, so who cares.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2014 @ 10:23am

Vodafone, is that you again?
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