An election internet shutdown also disables the people documenting the election

Derrick Wachaya describes how Tanzania’s October 2025 communications blackout obstructed opposition organizers and election observers. People could not readily coordinate, circulate photographs, or report irregularities as they occurred.

The interruption therefore affected more than access to news. It damaged the machinery through which claims about an election could be checked and shared, while also disrupting economic and humanitarian activity.

The article places Tanzania alongside other African shutdowns and argues that connectivity should be understood as democratic infrastructure. Its interviews illustrate particular experiences rather than proving every allegation about the election. The enduring mechanism is straightforward: shutting a network at a politically sensitive moment alters who can produce a public account of events, not merely who can read one.