Cameroon Bans Twitter Via SMS to Insulate Itself Against Digital Activists

By Dibussi Tande

In a bid to insulate Cameroon against popular uprisings similar to those that have toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt in recent months, the government of Cameroon has forced mobile operator MTN end its five-month old partnership with the microblogging giant Twitter, and to discontinue its Twitter short code service.
 

This service allowed MTN subscribers to receive tweets for free and send tweets at the standard SMS rates.

In should be recalled that during his press conference of February 22, 2010, Cameroon’s Minister of Communications and regime spokesperson had lashed out at Cameroonians in the Diaspora who were using Facebook and Twitter to try and launch Egypt-type protests in Cameroon. And, during the February 23 protests , the international media relied primarily on Tweets for information on what was going on in the country.

Obviously, the government has failed to learn the lesson from North Africa, particularly in Tunisia where the Ben Ali regime was still toppled even though it had banned all social media sites for years and had engaged in a sophisticated cyber-war with Tunisian digital activists.

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Comments

[limbekid]

If this is true, then Cameroon has sunk to an all time low.

[ambergris]

No, it is just being true to itself, or at least its rulers are.