# Internet shutdown and security-force tear gas during 6–8 September term-limit protests

Date: 2017

## The fact

From 6 September 2017 Togolese authorities blocked internet services during scheduled term-limit protests. Amnesty recorded that on 7–8 September security forces beat protesters and fired tear gas in Lomé, Sokodé, Bafilo and Mango. Amnesty estimated about 100,000 participants on 6 September.

## Context

He was president. Telecom and security services executed. Amnesty wrote the 8 September note.

6 September shutdown; 7–8 September tear gas; 20 September Mango child death. Stored as one early-September 2017 Fact. Keep Internet shutdown and security-force tear gas during 6–8 September term-limit protests on 2017-09-06 separate from neighbouring [Gnassingbé](/people/faure-gnassingbe) instruments.

The President of the Council of Ministers of Togo, under the 2024 constitution, holds full executive authority as majority-party leader. Until 3 May 2025 the same person was President of the Republic. He does not write Amnesty briefing notes, Reuters dispatches, or Library of Congress legal monitors.

## Evidence and sources

Amnesty International carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [civic space](/drivers/civic-space): a completed shutdown-and-tear-gas cluster against term-limit protests.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Internet was blocked from 6 September 2017. Amnesty and Reuters recorded tear gas and beatings on 7–8 September.

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.

Sharing field execution is not a reason to drop the cluster.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Internet shutdown and security-force tear gas during 6–8 September term-limit protests, not a later speech about Internet shutdown and security-force tear gas during 6–8 September term-limit protests.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Internet shutdown and security-force tear gas during 6–8 September term-limit protests on 2017-09-06 is not a licence to treat every later Amnesty International 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 Internet shutdown and security-force tear gas during 6–8 September term-limit protests into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He headed the state that blocked the internet and commanded the forces that dispersed. Sharing field execution is not a reason to drop the cluster. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Faure Gnassingbé: https://factrail.ai/people/faure-gnassingbe

## Drivers

- Civic Space: https://factrail.ai/drivers/civic-space
- Gnassingbé dynastic rule: https://factrail.ai/drivers/gnassingbe-dynastic-rule

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/article/world/togo-forces-fire-tear-gas-to-disperse-gnassingbe-opponents-idUSKCN1BI1UT/
- https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/09/togo-security-forces-beat-fire-tear-gas-at-peaceful-protesters-amid-internet-shut-down/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/tg-protests-sep-2017