Mauritius shuts down social media until after the election, which makes the opposition and civil society groups angry

According to the opposition, Mauritius’ communications regulator told all internet service providers on Friday to block access to social media sites until Nov. 11, the day after the general election. They said this was an attempt to avoid losing the election.

Reporters Without Borders, a group that monitors the media, says that since the middle of October, 20 talks between lawmakers, police, lawyers, journalists, and members of civil society in the island nation have been leaked on social media related to a story involving wiretapping.

As a result of “illegal postings,” the Information and Communication Technologies Authority said it would temporarily block social media sites.

Because of the release of “certain” audio clips, the Prime Minister’s office said the ban was needed to protect the country’s national security and dignity.

Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth’s office said in a statement, “A crisis committee is meeting right now to contain the existing risks as soon as possible.”

As a result, the opposition said the ban was just a political move to help Jugnauth avoid losing the Nov. 10 election and keep the majority in parliament that his Militant Socialist Movement party currently has.

It’s clear to the leaving government that it’s going to lose. Navin Ramgoolam, head of the Alliance for Change party and Jugnauth’s main opponent, said, “It is doing everything it can to stay in power.”

It’s been 15 years since the artist Charly d’Almeida started turning trash into art.

One of the country’s three telecoms companies, EMTEL, said it would follow the order and warned that “the user experience will be progressively disrupted.”

“Curtaining access to digital platforms would not only stifle democratic processes but also harm the economy, disrupt businesses, and limit access to essential information and services,” said the Internet Governance Forum and the Internet Society in a joint statement.

Law enforcement and Jugnauth have said in the past that the stolen calls were changed using AI.

Since his father quit as prime minister in 2017, Jugnauth has been the leader of Thailand.

An opposition candidate said that Jugnauth’s victory in the 2019 election was bought with bribery and undue influence, but a British court, which was Mauritius’s highest court of review, confirmed the result.

Reporter Jocelyn Chan Low, a political expert from Mauritius, told Reuters that the wiretapping affair would have an effect on the election results.

“There is a popular outcry on many alleged scandals which are still unsolved, and which have been the focus of these leaks,” he stated.