Signals

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From his high-rise building-Desk with views of the sprawling city of Addis Ababa , Markos Lemma has a pretty good perspective on things.

As The Founder of the technology innovation hub IceAddis, its co-working space is fueled usually abuzz with wide-eyed entrepreneurs, the strong coffee, and big dreams.

But if The Internet goes down, all killed in their tracks.

data that will be shared with the BBC, digital rights group, shows that in the past year the services have been driven down intentionally, More Than 200 times in 33 different countries separated from each other.

"Traffic just stops. No One comes or if they do, they do not stay for long, because without The Internet , what you want to do?" Markos says.

"We had because a Software Development contract, the deliver was cancelled because we could not in time. it was internet interruptions. We also have [had] situations in which international customers think that our company, to ignore them, but there is nothing we can do. "

Markos Lemma, a logo for his co-working space IceAddis

motorbike drivers wait to, rather than the provision of food. Without an internet connection, people can not, it says online or via apps, Markos.

"Internet shutdowns will have a direct result on the company and the people here. "

Disconnect from The Web

It's not just in Ethiopia, and the effect is not only economically. Access Now the research shows that blackouts are affect tens of millions of people around The World in different ways.

government officials are able to block the "switch off" of The Internet through the order of service providers in certain areas-from the reception of the Signals or, sometimes, by blocking access to certain web services.

Human Rights groups are concerned that the measure is a crucial tool of government repression around The World .

These new data for analysis by the BBC suggests that the disorder is increasingly associated with times of protest.

It shows that in the year 2019, The Internet was switched off during the More Than 60 protests, and in 12 cases, occurred periods during the election.

governments often say that a shutdown is to help ensure public safety and to prevent the spread of fake news.

But critics say they inhibit the flow of information online and Crack Down on all possible dissent offline.

The United Nations declared access to internet a human right to be in 2016, and the achievement of universal access targets is a goal of Sustainable development (SDG).

However, not all leaders subscribe to this idea.

In August 2019, Ethiopia's Prime Minister , Abiy Ahmed explains that The Internet "would not the water or in the air" and the shutdown will remain an important Instrument for national stability.

Markos Lemma is still angry About That claim.

"The government does not see The Internet as important. I think, you really think The Internet is not only about Social Media , so that you can really see the economic value of The Internet and the impact it is having on the economy. "

India is at the top of The Blackout list

The new data for 2019 shows that India is by far the highest number of shutdowns of any country in the past year.

Mobile data or broadband services were shut down for residents in different parts of the country 121 times, with the majority (67%), disputed India-administered Kashmir.

the Figures show that the Central African country of Chad has had the longest shutdown, starting in 2018, and stretching for More Than 15 months.

And protesters in Sudan and in Iraq have found themselves forced to engage, to organize, everything offline, if you turned off your internet.

The impact of the incident varies greatly, depending on the extent of the failure: of localized blocking of Social Media platforms to country-wide outages for all internet traffic.

"throttling" is a form of blackout to monitor the more difficult, and happens when a government slows down data services. You may share bump is a modern, fast 4G mobile internet up to the 1990s-era 2G, which makes it impossible to make videos or livestream.

This happened in may 2019, if The President of Tajikistan admitted to throttling most of the social networks. including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, saying they were "prone to terrorist activities".

Some countries, such as Russia and Iran are currently thought to build and test locked their own versions-off on The Internet , to a sign of the growing control of The Web .

Digital rights group Access Now, says: "It seems that more and more countries are to learn from each other and the implementation of the nuclear option of internet shutdowns silence critics, or commit other Human Rights violations without supervision. "

internet, social media

Source of news: bbc.com