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Photo illustration by blackboard
As COVID-19 spreads, the Internet is center stage. It is the source of everything from rampant lies to crucial information, and it is the great connector that has enabled many people to work from their sofas and stay in touch with loved ones while in isolation.
It is not just individuals and businesses that take advantage of the ubiquitous connection: many governments are turning to increased vigilance to control and stem the spread of the pandemic. Singapore has developed an optional app that uses Bluetooth to monitor close contact between users, while Russia is using facial recognition cameras to detect quarantine violations. The United States government is talking to the private sector about tracking phone location data to better monitor and contain the spread of the virus. The European Data Protection Supervisor even requested a “pan-European model mobile application COVID-19, coordinated at EU level”, which would add data in harmony with existing EU privacy laws.
These countries and others are leaning on technology in potentially alarming ways. Others are on the opposite side of the spectrum, with the Internet shuttered to varying degrees by the government. These communications blackouts started months ago or, in some cases, years ago, but their continuation in the midst of the pandemic really underscores the dangers of internet blackouts. Communication and access to information are a matter of life and death for many people, and that is especially true during a pandemic.
Millions do not have internet access in the federally administered tribal area in northwest Pakistan, where the internet has been closed for years. In Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the government has for months prevented citizens from connecting. The Indian government still imposes many restrictions on internet access in Kashmir, such as prohibiting high-speed connections and blocking available websites. In all of these cases, governments have cited violence and unrest as justifications for the blackouts.
Ethiopia shut down the internet in Wollega province in January in response to the unrest. Just two weeks ago, long before the spread of the coronavirus in the country, the government (which has just declared a state of emergency in response to the pandemic) lifted its ban on the Internet and mobile phone networks. The government said it no longer needed the shutdown for security reasons, but this change also came after the UN High Commission on Human Rights and other groups criticized the ongoing communications blackout. In total, millions of people around the world currently cannot get real-time news about the virus (or updates from friends and family) online.
Communications outages can occur in several different ways. Sometimes governments will require Internet Service Providers to heavily filter the web and block access to social media by inspecting DNS or Domain Name Service queries. At other times, they will order Internet Service Providers to literally turn off the power, or to effectively turn off by substantially reducing Internet speeds. Blackouts of mobile cellular services can occur in tandem.
Network shutdowns are bad even when there is no ongoing global crisis. They are a massive impediment to communications within a region, and can also prevent the international community from collecting information about those regions and events on the ground. However, its continuation during the pandemic really highlights the dangers associated with completely shutting down digital connectivity.
People turn to the web for crucial information in their daily lives, and that is especially true in crisis. The swift nature of the COVID-19 news means an internet blackout seriously hampers citizens’ ability to obtain the most reliable details about everything, such as recent infection counts, social distancing measures imposed in their area, the latest advice and corrections to circulating misinformation. In Kashmir, for example, residents have reported that they cannot obtain reliable data on the pandemic. A blackout also hinders the public’s ability to communicate with others and call wirelessly for medical assistance. Without access to online information, tangible physical harm can occur.
Furthermore, even though disinformation and disinformation have spread online about the coronavirus – on Facebook and Twitter, on TikTok and WhatsApp, much of which causes serious harm – and governments have cited stopping disinformation as their reason. To block the Internet, as in India, research does not indicate that shutting down the web stops the spread of false information. Internet shutdowns under the guise of stopping “fake news” may be misguided attempts to stop the spread of misinformation, but many are simply using that claim as cover for the crackdown.
The fact is that repression works, and hits the most vulnerable people. Closings (as with many digital repression techniques) have the worst effects on low-income and marginalized groups. The richest people can evade access to the Internet with mesh networks or virtual private networks, or use alternative means such as satellite devices to connect.
As Human Rights Watch recently noted, Internet shutdowns also disproportionately harm those who are especially dependent on online services, including women, LGBTQ people, transgender people and people with disabilities, who “are more likely to depend the Internet to protect yourself. ” their physical safety, access to sexual and reproductive health information and care, and participation in social, professional and economic life. “The increase in visits to websites supporting domestic violence during the pandemic highlights this fact with respect to right now, when many people are locked up with abusers. Internet shutdowns only exacerbate the disparate impacts of this type of public health crisis.
While human costs are high, Internet outages are also hurting the economy, and COVID-19 highlights this fact as more and more people work remotely amid the growing economic downturn worldwide. As in other areas, disparate damage from power outages can save the most privileged people working in the information economy, but the impacts are still widespread as citizens cannot do even simple things like ordering food. to local businesses remotely.
Right now, even for the problems that the Internet is accelerating, it is allowing people to stay in touch with each other, share their experiences, coordinate grassroots efforts to create masks, or support their communities in other ways. The pandemic should be a powerful reminder of the importance of free and open Internet access in today’s interconnected world, and an appeal to the international community to more strongly condemn these continued forms of digital repression.
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