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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, 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