Minister for Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation, Sam Nartey George, has revealed that at some point, he contemplated a temporary nationwide internet shutdown to halt the circulation of disturbing videos following the August 6 helicopter crash.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Mr George described the period as a “mixed experience”, praising the swift cooperation of telecom companies in responding to the crisis.
“When it comes to the coverage of the tragedy, I’d say that it’s been a mixed part for me, and let me say a very big thank you to the telecom companies – MTN, Telecel, and AirtelTigo, Ghana,” he said.
He explained that his alarm grew as graphic videos began flooding social media, especially WhatsApp, which is beyond the control of any government.
“When the incident happened, I was distraught, but we still had a responsibility to the state. I got a call with the videos that started circulating. The unfortunate situation is most of them were circulating on WhatsApp, and WhatsApp is a platform that is not controlled by any country. It’s a private business,” he explained.
Faced with this situation, the Minister said he was presented with two difficult options.
“One was to shut down the internet in the country to prevent further spread of the videos, because the government had not officially completed communication to the families. Government had not made a formal communication. You had some of the kids who are old enough being online. I was worried about the mental health of those kids and their spouses, and such tragedy needs to be broken in a certain way,” he said.
The idea of pulling the plug on the internet, he revealed, was not taken lightly.
“That was one option—to shut down, make a public announcement and say we’re turning off the internet for a period to allow for calm to prevail and have a grip of everything before we allow. But then that also came with its own consequences. Many of you stream the news, how people get the news via stream and all of that. You could have a ripple effect that would actually be worse than what you were trying to fix. And so, we had to leave that intact.”
Instead of a shutdown, Mr George opted for a coordinated, behind-the-scenes effort involving both local and international stakeholders.
“I immediately reached out to Meta and activated a POC that we had there to see what Meta could do, because Meta controls the WhatsApp platform. Then I started making personal calls to senior vice presidents that I knew at Meta to see what could be done. They assured me they were going to look into the matter.”
His focus then shifted to local operators, who responded swiftly. “Then I reached out to the NCA and asked them to get in touch with all the CEOs. I personally placed calls to the three CEOs and said they should work with the NCA. We sent out about 30 million text messages within the space of two hours, and the telecom companies bore the cost for this,” he said.
Mr George stressed that all restraint messages sent from the Ministry of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation were fully funded by the telecom operators.
“All those messages that went out from the MOCDTI asking people to please exercise restraint, the cost was borne by the telecom companies themselves as part of working with us. The NCA coordinated the blast of the messages across the country,” he concluded.
