Zimbabweans woke up to a new internet shutdown on Friday, after they were cut off from the online world for more than 30 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Thursday, network and internet service providers said the web had been switched back on but WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook would be unavailable until further notice.
But early on Friday an SMS to subscribers from Econet Wireless, the country's biggest mobile network, said: "We were served with another directive for total shutdown of the internet until further notice. Our lawyers advised we are required to comply with the directive pending the court's decision on its legality. The earlier directive is already the subject of a pending high court application."
Zimbabwe has five international gateways for internet and voice traffic. TelOne, Telecel and NetOneThree are operated by the state, and the others are owned by Econet and Africom.
The country has an estimated 7-million WhatsApp users, and traffic on the instant messaging service uses 32% of all data.
Facebook has an estimated one million active users. There is no verifiable number of Twitter users, according to IT publication Techzim.
Kuda Hove, the legal and ICT policy promotion officer at the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, said the shutdown affected people's capacity to access basic goods and services, since they depended on mobile and e-banking services. An estimated 80% of electronic transactions are conducted on the internet.
Human rights groups said the withdrawal of internet access was a human rights violation...