Since 2016, there has been an increase in the number of internet access restriction measures, although these saw a significant decline during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year was marked by significant geopolitical events. War in Ukraine, demonstrations in Iran, elections under high tension in Brazil… Affected by the various economic, political and health crises of recent years, the world is entering a period of instability and great change. Authoritarian regimes are gaining ground, but have to deal with an increasingly popular tool that allows the free flow of information and opinions: the Internet. Restricting access to it, even partially, becomes a first-rate solution for silencing the opposition, maintaining the torch of propaganda inherited from the last century, and above all, limiting freedom of expression.
Oppositions and minorities are the most affected
According to a recent report by the NGO Access Now, there would have been 187 Internet shutdowns in 35 countries in 2022, compared to 159 in 2020 and 75 in 2016. These are interruptions due to decisions of national governments or premises, or actors working under their jurisdiction, and not breakdowns related to any malfunctions.
Among the most affected nations are, of course, Ukraine and Iran. In the first case, it was the Russian army that caused the cuts. For the second, it is the power in place which tried to prevent the protest movement from expressing itself and communicating on the Web. Respectively, there have been 22 and 18 Internet shutdowns in the past year.
Nevertheless, it is India that occupies the first place in this sad ranking. Among the 84 interruptions recorded, there are no less than 49 in Jammu and Kashmir alone. Disputed with Pakistan, this region in the north of the country saw its autonomy revoked in 2019, causing numerous hostilities. However, the Indian government describes most of its nationwide interruptions as security measures or to prevent cheating in school exams.
The report specifies that these measures are often localized to specific regions rather than to all national territories. Thus, it is very often minorities who are the most affected. For example, in Myanmar, the military junta shuts down the internet in some areas to ” facilitating and concealing serious human rights violations, and cutting off communications between individuals and communities ”, according to Access Now. In Ethiopia, much of Tigray, where a civil war raged from 2020 to 2022, suffered more than two years of total communications blackout.
A New World Order on the Web
If no Western country is in this ranking, American social networks have been particularly affected by these cuts. The report highlights the cases of Facebook and Twitter, which were specifically blocked 13 times in 11 and 12 countries respectively. This is of course to restrict access to very popular platforms, through which many people communicate. But they are also the consequences of a growing mistrust, even hostility towards the West in a major part of the globe, and this, for reasons that are not always virtuous.
In this respect, we can mention the two absentees at the top of the ranking, namely China and Russia, their unique break in 2022 is not insignificant. These two nations, led by totalitarian regimes, have mastered digital technology to integrate it into their propaganda and censorship strategies. The Middle Kingdom designed its Internet infrastructure, from its inception, to be relatively independent from the rest of the world. With state-controlled platforms, and companies legally obligated to provide user data and pledge allegiance to the ruling party, the Chinese live in near-total digital self-sufficiency.
In Russia’s case, its Net infrastructure is significantly less government-controlled (if at all), as it is inherited from the years following the fall of the USSR. During this period, there was little state presence, and web access was provided by local rather than national entities. However, the power in place since the 2000s has been able to take control of popular social media platforms such as VKontakte, by having them bought by oligarchs for example. Thus, while the conflict in Ukraine has claimed many victims, citizens remain relatively unaware of the reality of the conflict, and any opposition is quickly suppressed.
The restriction of Internet access is a trend that seems to be confirmed. From a network connected across the world, the Web could become a series of pockets, increasingly hermetic to each other, especially in totalitarian countries. Initiatives like those of Elon Musk and Starlink at the height of the Iranian protest are laudable (on paper) and can guarantee access to free information. But the Access Now report, beyond demonstrating the importance of the Internet in the 21st century, also gives a very precise map of a world in which human rights are still too often set aside.
Source : Neowin
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