"The more undemocratic the system of government, the more likely it is that the Internet will be shut down. To prove this, the authors refer to the annual Democracy Index of the British consulting firm Economist Intelligence Unit of the news magazine of the same name. According to the index, 17 of the 22 states with Internet blocking are classified as "authoritarian". In the states classified as democratic or partially democratic, the governments have refrained from restricting Internet access. According to the study, the longevity in power also plays an important role: Eleven of the 14 African heads of state who have been in power for 13 years or more have at least temporarily switched off the Internet in recent years. These figures aren't really surprising: it's obvious that despots don't fit into the crap of hard-to-control communication platforms on the Internet. According to the study, not only civil society, but also the economy suffers from the Internet barriers: local and national telecommunications providers in the affected countries have made direct losses; in addition, the barriers have frightened off potential investors in the long term." (www.welt-sichten.org, April 9, 2019)