Internet in Algeria Taken Down as Thousands Protest in the Streets

• Most regions in Algeria have completely lost access to internet services, as the opposition against the government culminates.
• People are expressing their opposition to “le pouvior”, a shady cabal which runs the country on the back of the puppet president.
• The internet outages have been going on for ten days already, and are still present in many areas.

Wherever and whenever there are social unrest and active anti-governmental protesting, there are internet outages. The latest example of this trodden comes from Algeria where people protest against the submission of candidacy for re-election by the president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The president is already going through his 20th year in the office and considering the social problems (inequality, unemployment) that Algerians continue to face, his terms haven’t been exactly successful. The demonstrations against the re-election of the 82-year-old Bouteflika are driven by disappointment and the hope for a brighter future, and the internet plays a coordination role for them.

Things like “when” the demonstrations will start, “where” will the gathering of the people take place, “what” to watch out for, and “how” to protect themselves from danger are all done online, on social networks and private chat rooms. Undermining this capacity is weakening the organization of the protests, and so governments have less of a headache from public unrest. This time, the headache was quite a nasty one, as local media report that the demonstrations were the biggest and most populous since the rebellious Arab Spring in 2011. Young Algerians are furious, and their movement has gain quick traction through social media callings.

With all that is going on, taking the internet down was an expected turn of events. Netblocks report that the internet outages started on the 25th of February, and in many regions, they are still ongoing. But this is not the end of the story in regards to the phimosis that is taking place. According to Reuters reports, the police arrested several journalists who were covering the demonstrations, with one of them stating that: “There were orders from the ministry of communications that live broadcasts from outside are completely forbidden, for any channel that could broadcast abroad. Foreign channels can only broadcast live from inside a studio.”

#Algeria: Internet has been allegedly cut off in the centre of #Algiers. TV Channels are forbidden to broadcast the demonstrations across the country against the #Bouteflika regime.

— Olivier Guitta (@OlivierGuitta) March 1, 2019

Algerians do not show any signs of willing to compromise whatsoever, as they consider Abdelaziz Bouteflika not even to be the real ruler of the country. The president has not appeared publicly for years, is currently (and has been for quite a while) in a hospital room in Geneva, and is only serving as the puppet for his brothers, other politicians, high-standing army officials, and businessmen who are milking the wealth of the country while its people are left to ebb and decline.

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