On June 2, when the Senegal government blocked access to social media sites and messaging platforms, demand for Virtual Private Networks (VPN) rose by over 60,000 percent, compared to the daily average seen in the country.
VPN services often help users to attain online anonymity by masking the IP addresses one uses to access the internet.
According to data from monitoring firm Top10VPN, the African country saw a 60,399 percent rise in VPN demand, when comparing current data to the beginning of May. The firm added that this was the “single largest increase” in VPN demand by some distance that they had ever recorded.
According to reports, the Senegalese government had on June 2 shut down some social media sites after protests hit the nation after the opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was awarded a jail sentence on a two-year-old rape case.
The shutdown impacted services like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and WhatsApp.
“The record-breaking surge in demand for VPNs rose followed a rise of 8197 percent, compared with the daily average over the 28 day prior,” according to the Top10VPN report.
As of Wednesday, the figure stands at a 1445 percent rise.
Senegal 6th African country to break free internet pledge
A report from VPN firm SurfShark reveals that Senegal is the sixth African country to impose internet restrictions. This is despite earlier supporting a 2021 UN Human Rights Council resolution on the promotion, protection, and enjoyment of human rights on the internet.
The internet shutdown affected over 8 million in the country, Top10VPN added. This has had an economic impact of over 16.7 million dollars on the country, the firm’s report showed.
Other countries that went back on their free internet pledge were Sudan, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mauritania, Somalia and Nigeria.
‘Dubious’ free VPNs may lead to privacy risk
According to the Head of Research at Top10VPN.com, Simon Migliano, the extent of popularity that free VPN services have attained in Senegal is deeply concerning.
“The business model of the vast majority of free VPN services is based on selling often extensive user data. Most free VPNs have highly opaque ownership, while a significant number have Chinese owners,” he told Siasat.com.
