# Government orders internet shutdown in North-West and South-West Anglophone regions

Date: 2017

## The fact

On 17 January 2017 Cameroonian authorities ordered an internet shutdown in the North-West and South-West regions after Anglophone lawyer and teacher protests. Access Now recorded the first shutdown as lasting 94 days, restored around 20 April 2017.

## Context

He is head of state. MINPOSTEL and security services executed. Access Now and later OHCHR recorded the order. A second, more targeted shutdown followed in October 2017.

October 2016 protests; 17 January 2017 shutdown; 20 April restoration. Stored as one 2017 shutdown Fact. Keep Government orders internet shutdown in North-West and South-West Anglophone regions on 2017-01-17 separate from neighbouring [Biya](/people/paul-biya) instruments.

The president of Cameroon is head of state and commander-in-chief. He promulgates laws the [National Assembly](/organizations/national-assembly) has passed and is proclaimed by the Constitutional Council. He does not write Human Rights Watch reports, OHCHR mission annexes, Access Now filings, or AFP fact-checks.

## Evidence and sources

OHCHR carries the official instrument or communique. Access Now records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [digital censorship](/drivers/digital-censorship) and [civic space](/drivers/civic-space): a completed region-wide shutdown against protest.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Access Now recorded a government-ordered shutdown from 17 January 2017 lasting about 94 days in the two Anglophone regions.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Services executed. Access Now recorded. Sharing execution is not a reason to drop the order.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Government orders internet shutdown in North-West and South-West Anglophone regions, not a later speech about Government orders internet shutdown in North-West and South-West Anglophone regions.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Government orders internet shutdown in North-West and South-West Anglophone regions on 2017-01-17 is not a licence to treat every later OHCHR communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Government orders internet shutdown in North-West and South-West Anglophone regions into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He heads the state that ordered the shutdown. Services executed. Access Now recorded. Sharing execution is not a reason to drop the order. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Paul Biya: https://factrail.ai/people/paul-biya

## Drivers

- Biya Anglophone crisis and succession: https://factrail.ai/drivers/biya-anglophone-crisis-and-succession
- Digital Censorship: https://factrail.ai/drivers/digital-censorship
- Civic Space: https://factrail.ai/drivers/civic-space

## Sources

- https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/access-now-files-supporting-intervention-in-renewed-legal-challenge-to-internet-shutdown-in-cameroon/
- https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/ANNEXE.%20Summary%20report%20final.November%202021.pdf

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/cm-anglophone-shutdown-2017