Governments around the world shut down the internet more than 50 times in 2016 — suppressing elections, slowing economies and limiting free speech.
In the worst cases internet shutdowns have been associated with human rights violations, Deji Olukotun, Senior Global Advocacy Manager at digital rights organisation Access Now told IPS.
“What we have found is that internet shutdowns go hand in hand with atrocities” said Olukotun.
“In Ethiopia there’s been consistent blocking this year of social media and internet.” Dozens of people have died in protests in Ethiopia in 2016, “many of them during the kind of blackout where it’s difficult to report on what’s happening,” he said.
Several leaders used internet shutdowns to affect democratic processes, including elections.
“In Uganda in February 2016 there was a shutdown of social media networks by President Museveni and that again happened in Gambia (in December) surrounding the election,” Olukotun added.
In other cases, three governments chose to shut down the internet because they thought that it would stop students from cheating on their exams, he said.
However governments do not seem to have taken into account the potential repercussions of the shutdowns, beyond the limits of free speech.
According to a recent Brookings Institute paper internet shutdowns cost countries 2.4 billion dollars in 2015.
The biggest losses were in India, $968 million, Saudi Arabia, $465 million and Morocco which lost $320 million. According to Brookings these are conservative estimates which only take into account reductions in economic activity and not tax losses or drops in investor confidence.
However while many governments chose to limit internet access in 2016, many others invested billions in expanding internet access.
“On the whole most governments want to expand internet access,” said Olukotun. “Many of them see it as an opportunity to participate in the global economy and be competitive.”
Olukotun noted that there were many ways that internet access can be limited, beyond state-sanctioned shutdowns.
“It’s important that the internet that people do get online to gives them access to the whole internet and it’s not just a walled garden,” he said.
Olukotun added that shutdowns were happening more often and that governments were employing more sophisticated methods to ensure that internet users could not get around the shutdowns. While internet users in Uganda were able to use Virtual Private Networks to get around shutdowns earlier this year, other governments have used more sophisticated and targeted methods to disrupt the internet of certain groups.
In other cases governments banned specific social media networks.
When it comes to shutdowns, Olukotun said that one way to stop them is for internet providers to resist government demands.
“Telecommunications companies can push back on government orders, or at least document them to show what’s been happening, to at least have a paper trail,” he said.
He also noted that international organisations such as the International Telecommunications Union — the UN agency for information and communication technologies — could also do more by issuing statements in response to specific incidents.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 253 new monthly donors in the next 3 days.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy