Across Africa, digital access is increasingly unpredictable. With 21 shutdowns in 15 countries in 2024 alone, governments are using internet shutdowns and social media blocking to control communication flows during elections, protests, and political unrest. Under these conditions, organizations face fragile and shifting network infrastructures, leaving fewer reliable channels for coordination and information sharing. The Psiphon Forge API is specifically designed to help organizations maintain connectivity even when networks are restricted.

Our track record speaks for itself. In Ethiopia, over 2.2 million people in 2023 used Psiphon to bypass political blackouts and platform restrictions. In Sudan, more than 150,000 people stayed connected amid wartime disruptions. During political unrest in Guinea in 2024, over 120,000 people turned to Psiphon. In Uganda, more than 190,000 people relied on Psiphon to overcome blocking during the 2021 election period.

For transnational operations on the continent, this level of proven resilience matters. By leveraging Psiphon Forge’s battle-tested capabilities, organizations working across borders can maintain continuity across digital communications, services, and data platforms when conventional internet access is challenged or blocked. Psiphon Forge. The power to connect.

When Iranian authorities initiated a near-total internet blackout during the 2025 conflict with Israel, the move disrupted far more than public discourse—it paralyzed digital infrastructure across the country.

Cloud-dependent platforms largely went dark, and from financial transactions to logistics, both businesses and millions of people lost the ability to participate in their digital infrastructure.

Despite the fact that Psiphon maintained connectivity for over 1.5 million Iranians at the height of the shutdown, it underscored a critical and growing risk: in contested regions, internet access is not a given—it is a political and social strategy that is vulnerable to abrupt, unpredictable, and unilateral control.

This isn’t an isolated case. Across the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of Southeast Asia, governments are increasingly using network control. From throttling during protests to geoblocking entire platforms, digital interference has become normalized. Businesses reliant on stable connectivity—whether for defense, cross-border logistics, IoT, communications, enterprise software, or cloud-based customer platforms—must now factor censorship and disruption into their risk models.

Psiphon Forge addresses these realities with an embeddable, battle-tested API that ensures application-level resilience through multi-protocol tunneling and real-time network adaptation. Built on Psiphon’s global anti-censorship infrastructure, Forge helps businesses maintain critical operations and data flows, even in regions where connectivity is deliberately constrained.

The lesson of the Iranian shutdown is clear when it comes to networks. Making sure your network infrastructure can withstand unpredictability and maintain connectivity must be part of “business as usual.”