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from the stifle-opposition-quash-free-speech-and-muzzle-expression dept.
Internet shutdowns by governments have 'proliferated at a truly alarming pace':
The number of government-led internet shutdowns has exploded over the last decade as states seek to stifle dissent and protest by limiting citizens' access to the web.
Nearly 850 intentional shutdowns have been recorded over the past 10 years by nonprofit Access Now's Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project (STOP), and although the group acknowledges that data on incidents before 2016 is "patchy," some 768 of these shutdowns took place in the last five years. There were 213 shutdowns in 2019 alone, with this figure ticking down to 155 in 2020 as the world adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic (which delayed elections and led to lockdowns that kept populations at home more often). And already in the first five months of 2021 there have been 50 shutdowns across 21 countries.
"Since we began tracking government-initiated internet shutdowns, their use has proliferated at a truly alarming pace," Access Now's Felicia Anthonio, campaigner and #KeepItOn lead, said in a new report on the issue in The Current, a publication of Google's internet thinktank Jigsaw. "As governments across the globe learn this authoritarian tactic from each other, it has moved from the fringes to become a common method many authorities use to stifle opposition, quash free speech and muzzle expression."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Opportunist on Sunday September 05 2021, @07:13PM (38 children)
Odd. I haven't seen a single internet shutdown in the USA over BLM. Or France over the Gilets jaunes.
But one in Kyrgyzstan, 2 in Belarus, one in Turkey... countries that you don't get to hear a lot of protests from... maybe mostly because protesters tend to disappear quickly and quietly.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday September 05 2021, @08:30PM (7 children)
Apparently we're getting social media blackouts and restrictions on tweeting [theguardian.com] when the Queen dies.
We Brits have strange priorities:
Flags!
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 05 2021, @10:20PM (6 children)
Actually, Liz dying is a pretty big deal.
She's the only monarch most of us have ever known and whose death will cause many of her constituents to transition to republics. Canada plus a bunch of realms in Oceania and the Caribbean will fall within a decade or two.
No one cares for Charles or his dull son William - perhaps if the cool one, Harry, were king...
We had a vote 2 decades ago here downunder to replace her with a Clayton's president but decided not to fix what ain't broken.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 05 2021, @11:36PM (4 children)
You must be a neo-Nazi or something. https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/news/g4782/prince-harry-cringe-worthy-moments/ [marieclaire.com]
1. Dressed as a Nazi
2. Calls his Asian friends by names such as "Paki" and "raghead".
3. Drug rehab
4. Got nekkid in public in Las Vegas
5. Bashes in the faces of news photographers he doesn't like.
6. Falls into swimming pools - drunk.
7. Spurs his horse to death
8. Snorts vodka
But, hey, if you say he's cool, he's cool! I'm not even a Brit, what do I care?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 06 2021, @12:42AM
Prince Harry's out of the running anyway, and a good thing too. (By the way, he didn't spur it to death - it just bled. Still not good, but not what you're saying.)
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Monday September 06 2021, @09:19AM (2 children)
American here, the Nazi shits fucked up (don't know the context). Maybe it's all the punk music I've listened to, but the rest seems pretty cool to me.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 06 2021, @10:05AM
He wouldn't do those things (I take'm at face value for the moment, only heard of the Nazi stuff) if he wouldn't believe that somebody would consider them cool, would he? Seems like he has found an audience.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 06 2021, @06:25PM
You're an ignorant dumb ass. The so called "Nazis" were the good guys. Fuck the Jews (Holocaust is Jew lies) and the allied race traitors
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 06 2021, @12:44AM
Charles isn't anybody's idea of breath-taking excitement as far as I know, but he has one thing going for him. He has a long, LONG association with conservation, ecological stewardship and organic farming. The nation and the world could do worse.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday September 05 2021, @08:44PM (12 children)
Let's see: hmmmm..... Eric Snowden was effectively silenced and so was Julian Assange: they were morally right and correct, but not legally right (according to the USA) and so they were silenced.
Sometimes you don't need internet shutdowns to silence protests; you just need Governments that are willing to silence 'inconvenient truths'.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Sunday September 05 2021, @09:00PM (10 children)
And those cases turned off the internet in what country again? And for how long?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday September 05 2021, @10:39PM (9 children)
Just a matter of time, my fren, just a matter of time...Snowden showed us that.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Monday September 06 2021, @12:18AM (4 children)
#Freearistarchus!!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @12:29AM (3 children)
Grow up you whining little piece of shit. If the staff had any balls they would wash their hands of your bullshit and delete your account permanently.
(Score: 1, Funny) by aristarchus on Tuesday September 07 2021, @02:39AM (2 children)
You whiny coward of a cowardly AC! I hate you! I hate you so much! I wish the staff would just delete AC permanently, so we did not have to put up with all the AC bullshit and whining! Please, if you cannot say something useful and informative, or at least witty and risible, stop up your pie-hole!!
(Score: 1, Redundant) by aristarchus on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:58PM (1 child)
And somebody modded this Flamebait? How perceptive of them.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday September 08 2021, @07:37AM
And a -1 Redundant, which can only have come from Runaway, or his remaining sockpuppets. Someone suggested that the Redundant mod was unnecessary, superflous, sort of extra, and, well, redundant. But how else could a Runaway mod be signaled?
(Score: 1) by NPC-131072 on Monday September 06 2021, @12:35AM (2 children)
https://pjmedia.com/culture/bryan-preston/2021/09/04/elon-musk-has-an-amazing-message-for-anyone-who-wants-to-censor-his-starlink-internet-n1476048 [pjmedia.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Monday September 06 2021, @02:00AM (1 child)
Except for China, which will blow them out of the sky.
https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-internet-satellite-constellation-china-threat-2016-11 [businessinsider.com]
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/15/starlink_china_crisis/ [theregister.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 06 2021, @02:52AM
One of the basic tenets of futuristic sci-fi war stories is, the satellites stay up, until one side or the other is certain that the other side gets more benefit from the satellites than our side gains from them. At that moment, the satellites come down. You better have a backup plan for when they come down.
Satellites are vulnerable, and they will remain so for a very long time, maybe forever. There's just nothing to hide behind in a near-planet orbit. Now, if your sat can sneak off and hide behind the moon or something, then maybe it will be more survivable. Problem is, no matter how well hidden it might be, as soon as it broadcasts anything, it has given it's position away - so not much point in hiding, even if you can find a hidey-hole.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday September 06 2021, @08:03AM
I wouldn't hold my breath, dear, it's not healthy.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Monday September 06 2021, @06:27AM
Daniel Hale [wikipedia.org]
The Drone Papers [theintercept.com]
I wonder how many are aware, in spite of not being an Internet shutdown?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Username on Sunday September 05 2021, @09:23PM (13 children)
There was several. I remember reports of cell service in Ferguson being stopped. If you posted anything about BLM, your post on facebook, twitter or YT was disappeared. Until Trump got into office that is. Now, was that truely a shutdown by the government? Is a political NGO that consists entirely of members of the party in power and doing things on their behalf, governmental?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday September 05 2021, @10:44PM (5 children)
On that same note I also believe there would generally be a much thicker line drawn between "protestor" and "rioter" if footage from these protests was made more available, especially when you see protestors bounce would-be agitators. Turns out when you corral all the 'official' reporters in one spot they just keep their cameras on whatever's burning.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Monday September 06 2021, @12:45AM (4 children)
They would anyway. If it bleeds, it leads.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 06 2021, @01:00AM (3 children)
And if they can turn a protest into a caravan of boundary-crossing looters, you'll return again and again and again to consume more outrage/fear.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 06 2021, @02:16AM (2 children)
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 06 2021, @05:56AM (1 child)
Weird to have you admit that the GOP nonsense is as bad as it looks, then go on to defend their values against all world data.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 06 2021, @02:11PM
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday September 06 2021, @08:06AM (5 children)
You're comparing a government turning off internet access of its population to private entities deciding what you can do with their property. Do you see the difference or do I have to point it out?
Nothing kept you from opening a service, preferably outside of the country that you accuse of trying to curtail your freedom to express yourself, access it and broadcast your information on it. This is kinda different from countries where the local regime decided to cut your connection to the rest of the world.
I really hope you can tell the difference.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday September 06 2021, @02:04PM (1 child)
What i'm saying is that Snowden showed us that there are well funded agencies in the US that are QUITE willing to break the law in order to get what they want, sometimes with the backing of the President and others high up in the 'hierarchy' of the US.
Stopping internet coverage: is it that far from holding people without access to an attorney or any form of justice (Guantonamo Bay) and declaring people who do the morally right thing as terrorists and force them to flee their home country to escape a possible kangaroo court and prison?
I. don't. think. so.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday September 06 2021, @03:14PM
Yes. The difference is that nobody gives half a fuck about the people in Gitmo. But they do care about their cat videos.
Yes, that shouldn't be. But that's how it is.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 06 2021, @02:14PM (2 children)
You're going to point out that the private entities are conveniently acting as proxies for the government's interest in those situations, right? I wager most of the intentional government-led shutdowns listed in that study are actually implemented by private parties rather than by a government actor directly.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday September 06 2021, @03:18PM (1 child)
You really think Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and whatever antisocial media are there give half a fuck about what the US government wants? They care about profit. If anything, they tell the government to be happy with the info they throw them and shut up or they pack up and leave and then the US government can try to get anything from them anymore.
I think you grossly misinterpret who owns whom in this game.
The antisocial crapfests care first and foremost about money. That's it. They have no allegiance, no loyalty, no political agenda. They want money. Yes, money also means power, but for that they don't need politics. If they do, they buy a few politicians to do that for them.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 06 2021, @08:15PM
Absolutely.
And that is why. It's vastly more profitable to get some quid pro quo from the government than to subject oneself to the considerable problems that a displeased government and its regulators and law enforcement agencies can provide.
Government is top dog here. The "but Facebook has money" is an absolutely ridiculous argument. Think about it. Facebook has revenue [macrotrends.net] of around $100 billion presently. Sounds like a lot of money, right? Well the US government has revenue of $3.4 trillion over the same period. I get that billions and trillions sound alike, but one is much bigger than the other.
But it's worse than that. Facebook has to use most of that revenue just to insure that it has a future revenue stream - paying people, marketing, etc. That results in a net income somewhere around $30 billion per year. The US government does a bit of that too, but it's expenditures to keep the revenue going are much smaller. For example, the IRS (the US agency tasked with collecting most taxes) has a budget of roughly $12 billion a year. The budgets for the revenue collecting part of the federal government is minuscule. Thus, the similar net income for the US government is in excess of $3 trillion.
This also extends to borrowing. The US borrowed something like $3 trillion this year. They didn't get the serious analysis that a private business would have received for borrowing nearly the same amount as their annual revenue.
Then there's the bookkeeping. Facebook accountants would go to jail for the games that US government accountants are allowed to play - such as being allowed to completely ignore long term liabilities.
Finally, there is the raw power that governments have. Facebook can't start wars. It can't force large businesses like itself to follow very unprofitable rules that Facebook doesn't have to follow. It can't jail people.
Sorry, profit/money cooties don't make Facebook the owner. The US government has something like two orders of magnitude more of those things.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @12:31AM
Do you have any evidence to substantiate this claim or are you just spreading rumors?
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday September 06 2021, @11:26PM (1 child)
Odd. Presidents were overthrown in Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia. In Ukraine the guy was actually elected and then overthrown twice. The same guy. The only country that managed to stop it was Belarus.
That's while in the West nobody overthrowing anybody. Well, there was a weak attempt in Washington, but they are all carefully being hunted down. May be it's because democracies tend to make revolutionaries disappear quickly and quietly?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday September 08 2021, @06:32AM
It's easier to keep people from revolting if elections are honest, the person you elect is someone Russia likes so they don't try to stage a coup (which I guess must really piss the CIA off, that used to be their job after all, THEY TOOK UR JUUUBS!) and if your army is generally in favor of the idea of having a democratic system.
You need at least 2 of them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @11:33AM
Because the stability of the nation is NOT influenced by these niche protests.
USA can control the social media directly, if they wanted to. And the party in power used BLM to try to rally its racist base. For France, the protests are just a normal weekend thing.
You don't hear? YOU? Because I hear quite a lot of problems in Belarus. And that attempted coup in Turkey, yeah, it's not just a protest over wages. Maybe you heard about Syria? They got there though protests organized on Twitter as well. Maybe you recall the entire drama with the "Arab Spring"?
Kyrgyzstan had their government overthrown.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/world/europe/kyrgyzstan-protests-election-parliament.html [nytimes.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Kyrgyzstani_protests [wikipedia.org]
Maybe if the Trump Insurrection in January would have resulted in more than it did, maybe then you would see local Internet shutdown in some parts of USA.