Internet disrupted in Malawi on election day

Posted on

Data from the NetBlocks internet observatory show that multiple internet providers in Malawi experienced an outage spanning several hours on the evening of Tuesday 21 May 2019, election day, after Malawians voted to name a President, new MPs and local councillors.

Nationwide connectivity fell to 80% of normal levels from around 16:30 UTC during vote counting and the announcement of initial polling results, with access only returning at around 22:00 UTC. Data show that Malawi Telecommunications Limited, fiber optic network SimbaNET and ICT infrastructure operator Malswitch were affected, while access appeared to remain generally available via privately-owned internet providers.

Election observers in Malawi rely extensively on internet connectivity although the full impact on the electoral process has yet to be established. TV broadcasts and radio signals including those of BBC World and VOA Africa were also reportedly disrupted during the blackout.

Update: Malawi has experienced a new internet disruption from 2:30 to 3:00 a.m. UTC Wednesday 22 May as vote counting and transmission of results continues, this time affecting provider Skyband. Both networks are usually reliable according to historic data and the disruptions remain unexplained at time of writing:

On 19 May, local news media reported meetings where possible measures to limit internet access were discussed, and the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) issued a public warning about social media disinformation days prior to the election:

NetBlocks diffscans, which map the entire IP address space of a country, provide indications of the scope and timing of the disruptions.

Malawi joins African states Benin, Egypt, the DRC, Cameroon and Mali which have experienced partial or total internet disruptions with nationwide impact during and around the election period in recent months, with recorded incidents ranging from hours to several weeks.

Read more: An internet cutoff during Malawi’s vote count affected its electoral commission’s backup network

Methodology

This report follows the NetBlocks Election Pathfinder Rapid Response methodology which defines a set of core principles, workflows and benchmarks for network measurement and evaluation during elections and referenda.

Internet performance and service reachability are determined via NetBlocks web probe privacy-preserving analytics. Each measurement consists of latency round trip time, outage type and autonomous system number aggregated in real-time to assess service availability and latency in a given country. Network providers and locations are enumerated as vantage point pairs. The root cause of a service outage may be additionally corroborated by means of traffic analysis and manual testing as detailed in the report.

NetBlocks is an internet monitor working at the intersection of digital rights, cyber-security and internet governance. Independent and non-partisan, NetBlocks strives to deliver a fair and inclusive digital future for all.

[ press | contact ] Graphics and visualizations are provided for fair use in unaltered form reflecting the meaning and intent in which they were published, with clear credit and source attribution to NetBlocks. Intellectual property rights are protected including but not limited to key findings, facts and figures, trademarks, copyrights, and original reporting, are held by NetBlocks. Citation and source attribution are required at the point of use.