By Kihara Kimachia
Published June 11, 2014

how to defeat africa internet censorship ictafricainfo

Internet censorship is the practice of controlling Internet access or suppressing the content that can be viewed, accessed or published. The problem arises when a government unilaterally decides what its citizenry can or cannot view online and, interferes with freedom of expression, a universal human right.

RELATED: Ethiopia Should Drop Case Against Detained Bloggers and Journalists

The greatest culprit this side of the continent is Ethiopia that, despite having the second lowest Internet penetration rate in sub-Saharan Africa, engages in pervasive Internet censorship and content filtering. The use of certain advanced Internet applications–for example, Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP)–is illegal and being caught using Skype can get you up to 15 years in jail!

Ethiopia, Amhara Region, holy city of Lalibela, cyber cafeOther countries in Africa that have been known to censor the Internet or interfere with access in the recent past include The Sudan, Uganda and Ivory Coast.

So, what do you do when you find yourself in a situation where your government dictates browsing habits? The answer lies in a simple tool available as a free online download.

Without getting into technical details, most of the techniques used by Internet censors to block websites can be thwarted by installing a TOR free browser and using it anytime you access the net. “Tor” was originally an acronym for The Onion Router. The application is now simply referred to as Tor or The Tor browser. It enables online anonymity and is your best bet against anyone threatening your freedom of expression and privacy, confidential activities, and personal security. Get behind the Tor network and you will have little to worry about anytime you go online.

RELATED: Crackdown on Journalists in South Sudan Pits the People against the People’s Army

The TOR browser directs your traffic through a worldwide network of volunteers that consists of not less than five thousand relays. Your location and usage is concealed from snooping government agents. The now infamous US National Security Agency (NSA), in a top secret appraisal that was leaked by Wikileaks, described Tor as “the King of high secure, low latency Internet anonymity” with “no contenders for the throne in waiting”.

ethiopian government internet surveillanceYou may be wondering how to download Tor if your government has blocked the Tor website. Well, the developers thought about that too. There are two easy ways to get around that problem, the first is to search the Google cache for the Tor mirrors. Try downloading from any of the links on that search result page. If this doesn’t work, send an email from a Gmail account to ‘gettor@gettor.torproject.org’. Include the word “help” in the email subject line or body and you will get an automated reply with download instructions.

Finally, it is important to mention that the Tor browser isn’t a panacea for all types of censorship and filtering. For example, countries like China have taken extreme measures such as terminating Internet connections whenever an encrypted connection is detected. But, it is by far the best means to get unfettered access to your favorite websites and remain anonymous online.

RELATED: Africa Should Reject ‘Free Pass; for Political Leaders

An ictafrica.info article