10 |
RISING REPRESSION MEETS GLOBAL RESISTANCE: INTERNET SHUTDOWNS IN 2025
DURING
PROTESTS:Togo
What happened:
How people fought back:
When anti-government protests broke
out on June 26, 2025, to oppose the newly
adopted constitution, Togolese authorities
responded with a violent crackdown.38
Seven people were reportedly killed,
dozens injured, and 60 arrested.39
To further stifle dissent and silence
the population, authorities blocked
DuckDuckGo, Facebook, Signal, Telegram,
and YouTube, with some blocks lasting
as long as three months.40 Additionally,
authorities throttled internet access every
day from 9 am to midnight, rendering the
internet effectively useless during waking
hours between July 1 and September 5,
2025.41
#KeepItOn coalition partners shared
resources42 to help people circumvent
the platform blocking, documented the
shutdown using open measurement
tools,43 and demanded that authorities
uphold human rights during protests,
online and off.44
Note: This data was collected through
Access Now’s Shutdown Tracker
Optimization Project (STOP).
38 Amnesty International (2025). Togo: Testimonies provide glimpse into violent repression of protests.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/07/togo-repression-protests/.
39 Media Foundation For West Africa (2025). Bloody crackdown on protests in Togo: 7 dead, over 60 arrested.
https://mfwa.org/country-highlights/bloody-crackdown-on-protests-in-togo-7-dead-over-60-arrested/.
40 OONI Explorer (2025). Togo blocked Facebook, Telegram, Signal, YouTube, and DuckDuckGo amid protests.
https://explorer.ooni.org/findings/167838678600/.
41 IODA Internet Connectivity Dashboard (2025). https://ioda.inetintel.cc.gatech.edu/country/.
TG?from=1751244593&until=1757206193&view=view1/; RFI (2025). Togo: Internet et les Réseaux Sociaux ralentis, la société civile
inquiète interpelle La Cédéao.
https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20250704-togo-internet-réseaux-sociaux-ralentis-la-société-civile-inquiète-interpelle-cédéao
42 TOGO SCOOP (2025). Restriction d'internet au Togo: Internet society-Togo propose des solutions.
https://togoscoop.tg/restriction-dinternet-au-togo-internet-society-togo-propose-des-solutions/.
43
See supra note 40. OONI Explorer (2025). See also supra note 41. IODA Internet Connectivity Dashboard (2025).
44 Access Now (2025). #KeepItOn: Togolese authorities must uphold human rights online and off during protests.
https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/keepiton-togolese-authorities-must-uphold-human-rights-online-and-off-duringprotests/.