Silent Networks, Visible Coercion: Telecommunications Disruptions and Civilian Protection During Political Crises
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Telecommunications restrictions increasingly intersect with civilian protection, crisis communication, press freedom and the legitimacy of coercive authority. This article analyses the January 2025 social-platform restriction in South Sudan in the context of internationally documented internet shutdown patterns. It employs a source-audited descriptive design and an interpretive framework that separates observed shutdown incidence, restriction duration and government statements from unmeasured changes in mortality, violence or public trust. The Internet Society records a five-day Facebook and TikTok block in South Sudan from 22 to 27 January 2025, while Access Now reports 296 shutdowns worldwide in 2024, including 103 conflict-linked incidents. Those statistics establish the scale and types of restrictions but do not themselves prove that connectivity restrictions caused civilian harm or prevented violence. The analysis develops a civilian protection pathways framework, quantitative monitoring indicators and a feasible mixed-methods research protocol. Its central argument is that government decisions affecting communications must be evaluated not only for immediate public-order objectives but also for their effects on warning, verification, humanitarian access, media work and procedural accountability.
Author: Abraham Kuol Nyuon
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W7224969350