This was revealed by the Director-General of the NCA William Tevie. He explained in an interview with Daily Graphic Newspaper that there are different sources of the internet and this makes it impossible to shut down social media.
“In Ghana, the internet is coming from different angles and from different organisations, different companies and from different fibre optic cables and, therefore, it cannot be possible to shut the systems down to stop people from using social media.”
“We even have six fibre optic cables landing on the shores of Ghana from different sources as we speak, so if you want to shut down a service it won’t be possible,” he added.
Tevie explained that most people access the internet through their mobile phones and therefore shutting the internet down will mean speaking to all six telecom companies to shut down. This he believes is impossible.
“As we speak, in Ghana there is nothing like the “kill switch” where you can just put the internet off. There is also no way we can even delay content.”
“The internet is available – it is not like a one-way street, there are so many ways people can get access to the internet even if you shut one down, they will go for another so it will be very difficult,”
Tevie said the best option was to track down anybody who uses social media to fuel trouble during the election.
“Tracking sources is possible but not entirely reliable because you can track sources and it might trace you to places out of the Ghanaian jurisdiction. Every source has an IP address and it helps you know the origin of the information and the time it was sent and also you get to see the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that originated the IP address at that time,” he said.
The Inspector General of Police John Kudalor has advocated for a shutdown of social media during elections to prevent trouble. His advocacy was met with stiff opposition from the general public and some members of the government.
The Interior Minister Prosper Bani assured that there will be no shutdown during the election.
President Mahama also said even though social media platforms poses a serious threat to national security it will not be in the best interest of the country to shut down social media in the country.
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