Uganda's January 13, 2021 Internet Shut Down

On January 14, 2021, Uganda's government ordered the suspension of internet gateways, effectively cutting off internet access from the population to the rest of the world ahead of the country's general election. The unusual traffic patterns were noticed by Cloudflare Radar, which continually monitors its network and exposes insights based on aggregated data. Uganda's Internet eXchange point also confirmed the traffic drop. On January 18, internet access was re-established, but social media remained blocked. The shutdown lasted for nearly five days.