For the past For five weeks, thousands of Iranians, led by courageous young women, have taken to the streets of dozens of cities across the country, spurred by the case of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in custody. . of the country’s Ethics Police. At great risk to their safety, these young people are demanding an end to years of oppression, burning headscarves, cutting hair and marching in solidarity as Anti-Baraye national anthem, with the chorus “for women, life, freedom,” echoing through the streets. The authorities responded with a brutal crackdown, in which more than 230 Iranians are presumed dead. The government has also instituted strict internet controls, blocking access to messaging and social networking apps, and taking the entire web offline for hours at a time in an effort to prevent it. blocking the organization and concealing the extent of the protests and the police response.
As we pay attention to the developing situation in Iran, it is important to acknowledge that it is not an isolated event. Even when the protests in Iran started, Cuba has cut Internet access twice in response to protests over the government’s handling of Hurricane Ian.. Around the world, several troubled countries have severely curtailed internet freedom, including shutting down altogether, which has been their default response to popular protests. The most repressive of these regimes is learning from each other, sharing technology and in some cases even personnel to establish a tight grip on the web and its citizens.
At least 225 internet outages took place in response to popular protests since 2016. Access Now, a digital human rights advocacy group that tracks internet outages, reports that protests and political unrest have causes of 128 out of 182 confirmed Internet shutdowns in 2021. And severe internet restrictions, including a complete shutdown, have led to widespread protests. In in at least five Nation only in the last 10 months.
Internet outages can have significant impacts on the economy, healthcare and education even in the best of times, but when they are established during crises, they can be costly. cost of life. Restricting turned off internet use – and the severe second-order consequences they cause – requires a unified approach that acknowledges underlying impulses and technologies, as well as the struggles of that move.
Repressive governments have sought full control of the internet from the moment it was introduced, but shutdowns have emerged as a tactic over the past decade. However, the idea spread quickly, and the number of outages skyrocketed from just a handful in 2011 to one. peak 213 in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic forced the world into isolation, limiting the popular protests that often led to closures in the first place.
In 2021, when we are at Jigsaw interviewing people affected by internet shutdown, an individual from the Democratic Republic of Congo highlights the particular risk that people in remote areas, who do not have access to the Internet during the shutdown, may find themselves in the midst of a fierce battle. “Women get raped,” he told us. “Villages burned down.” Another activist, a Rohingya refugee in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, tells us how he uses WhatsApp to monitor the activities of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in refugee camps to avoid attacks. their merit. He highlighted the danger internet shutdowns pose to his life. A few months after we last spoke, he was assassinated. Iranians, even those who did not take part in the protests, now face similar risks due to a lack of situational awareness due to ongoing internet restrictions.
