Despite the Regulator of Media for Congo forbidding the press from publishing provisional results of the 30 December general election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, exit polls began circulating following the vote, with supporters of various political leaders trying to demonstrate that their man had won. In response, authorities in the Congo shut down the internet and disrupted SMS services under the guise of tackling fake news.
The shutdown lasted for 20 days — from 31 December until 19 January — and had major implications for the country, except for select businesses which were allowed to retain full access. The shutdown also had implications for media outlets, including Habari and politico.
To circumvent many of the difficulties we would face, and to ensure the continuation of publications on the site, some Habari staff in the east made their way to Rwanda so that they could access the internet without restriction. Crossing the border to Rwanda is free of charge, but staff who do not have Rwandan residency had to cross back before it closed at 10pm. One of our editors, who was in France at the time on an internship, took over from the community manager living in Lubumbashi in the south of the country, who was responsible for our Twitter output.
Of the four Congolese cities where Habari has offices, only the one in Goma in the east of the country was partly operational. In Kinshasa, I was unable to moderate comments on Facebook or post articles.
Having to confirm my identity on the social network through SMS was impossible with the service being down. Our Facebook feed, which is followed by more than , people, was mostly taken over by our webmaster living in Burundi.
