According to activists and a phone
company, Zimbabwe's government has blocked mass SMS bursts ahead of next week's
election, stifling a powerful source of non-official information in the tightly
controlled southern African state. With the July 31 poll date looming near, in
which President Robert Mugabe is looking to add to his 33 years in power, web
portal Kubatana.net said it had noticed this week that its mass text messages
were mysteriously getting lost.
Its provider, Econet Wireless -
Zimbabwe's largest mobile phone firm with 8 million subscribers out of a
population of 13 million - declined to comment. However, a senior company
source confirmed the firm had bowed to government pressure to block mass SMS
services around the election "in the
interest of peace, national security and stability". The source also
revealed that, "We have just been
told we cannot be facilitating bulk SMSs during the elections, roughly for the
next two or so weeks. Our understanding is that they will take our network down
or cancel our licence if there is any violation."
No comments:
Post a Comment