VPN usage soars in Mauritius amid pre-election social media shutdown

People successful Mauritius person been turning en masse to nan best VPN apps arsenic authorities person enforced a wide societal media shutdown up of nan wide elections.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok each went acheronian connected Friday, November 1, 2024 – net watchdog NetBlocks could corroborate (see tweet below). The blockage is expected to stay until November 11, nan time aft nan voting. This forces users to find a workaround to support accessing these services.

"People person rushed to download Proton VPN since early this greeting erstwhile nan societal media prohibition came into force, and we expect them to proceed to usage VPNs heavy until astatine slightest 11th November, erstwhile nan prohibition is owed to lift," David Peterson, General Manager of Proton VPN, told me.

Peterson said nan supplier recorded a spike successful usage of 16000% supra normal levels truthful acold – and it's "quickly growing." Other information shows VPN request crossed nan state is 16,107% higher than nan regular mean complete nan 28 days prior.

Authorities ordered nan blockage to halt nan dispersed of forbidden contented that whitethorn "threaten nationalist information and nationalist safety."

The state has precocious been rocked by a wiretapping scandal, successful fact, during which delicate conversations involving politicians, police, lawyers, journalists, and members of civilian nine person been leaked connected societal media – Reuters reported.

Digital authorities powerfully condemn nan move and impulse nan Mauritius government, a first-time offender of net shutdowns, to extremity nan ongoing crackdown connected societal media.

"This shutdown is simply a gross usurpation of nationalist and world quality authorities frameworks and must not beryllium allowed to continue," wrote nan #KeepItOn coalition, a world web of complete 334 quality authorities organizations from 105 countries moving to extremity net shutdowns, successful an open letter.

How a VPN tin help

A VPN, short for virtual backstage network, is information package whose superior extremity is to support you anonymous erstwhile browsing nan web by encrypting each your net connections to forestall third-party snooping.

At nan aforesaid time, though, VPNs besides disguise your existent IP address location. IP spoofing is not conscionable advantageous from a privateness perspective, but it besides enables you to entree different geo-restricted content.

People successful Mauritius tin past link to a VPN server located extracurricular nan state to bypass nan existent artifact and support utilizing societal media platforms arsenic usual.

As Peterson explains, nan supplier has enabled immoderate free predetermination servers successful Mauritius arsenic portion of its election support initiative. "We will proceed to run these servers arsenic agelong arsenic they are needed by citizens to circumvent net censorship," he said.

As I'm writing, group surviving successful different African state are battling against a akin block. The likes of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all went acheronian successful Mozambique only a time earlier pursuing mobile information disruptions that occurred nan week before. These incidents coincide pinch a activity of violent protests contesting nan predetermination results.

"There, we recorded a spike successful sign-ups of 8790% connected 30 October, and presently 9 of nan apical 10 apps connected nan Mozambique Google Play shop are VPNs," said Peterson.

If you are successful request of a intends to entree nan unfastened web and evade net restrictions, I propose looking into our best free VPN guideline to get nan astir unafraid freebie app correct now.