The Internet Became Less Free Can we Fight

The Internet Became Less Free: Can we Fight Back? Dgerdy Alabre

Summary • The article discusses that within the past several years freedom of speech across the internet has seen a steady decline, with 2018 being the worst year. The internet is growing less free around the world, and democracy itself is withering under its influence. • The Chinese government is at the forefront of censorship and controlling what people see on the internet, and are spreading their ideas to other countries. • Many countries are using the idea of controlling the internet to bash opposing parties and ideas and promote their ruling above all others. More countries are going to seek to assert their national sovereignty on the internet. • Many of the social media apps that authoritarians have been able to weaponized against people and democracy were designed with a certain amount of naiveté. Meaning that product design engineers were thinking about how to build the best product rather than how to protect users against the ways that it could be exploited which is why is so important nowadays to be mindful of how you use the internet.

Important Details • Analysts studied 65 countries, which together account for 87 percent of the world’s internet users, and rated each based on factors like barriers to access, limits on free expression, and violations of user rights and privacy. • Since June 2017, the report found, internet freedom declined in 26 countries, while only 19 countries saw their scores improve. As a result, just 20 percent of the global internet population is considered “free. ” • What we have seen over the past year is that many tyrants are channeling technology in order to consolidate power, smear government opponents, discredit the free press, and place activists and minorities under surveillance. • Internet shutdowns are on the rise, according to the advocacy group Access Now, which counted 188 shutdowns in 2018 up from 108 the year before.

The 'China Model' • Not only does China once again rank as the number one worst abuser of internet freedom, it is actively exporting its techno-dystopian model to other countries. China has long used technology as an instrument of control, from its Great Firewall to, more recently, its developing social credit system and expanded use of facial recognition. • Last year the Chinese government began to implementing a new cybersecurity law that greatly strengthened its surveillance and censorship powers while adding more restrictions on internet companies, including requirements to "immediately stop transmission" of banned content and to store all data on Chinese users within the country. • China’s general perspective is that every country has its own cultural characteristics, its own values, and it should be free to follow its own model when it comes to governing not only itself but also the internet.

China Spreading Ideals • Since January 2017, Freedom House counted 38 countries where Chinese firms have built internet infrastructure, and 18 countries using AI surveillance developed by the Chinese. • Of the 65 countries Freedom House studied, 18 have instituted new measures to increase state surveillance since last year. Some of those measures, such as one passed in Vietnam, closely resemble China's cybersecurity law. Even democracies, including the US, are "voicing their own determination to overcome encryption when national security is at stake. • A number of countries have also followed China's lead in censorship efforts—although there are other sources of inspiration too. Some countries, like India and Sri Lanka, have also used fake news as an excuse to cut off the internet or mobile networks, saying it was the only way to halt the spread of disinformation.

Co-opting Fake News • China's model is not just at odds with democratic norms, the report notes, it may also represent a privacy risk: "As more of the world’s critical telecommunications infrastructure is built by China, global data may become more accessible to Chinese intelligence agencies through both legal and extralegal methods. • “Fake news, ” a term which has been popularized by the president of the United States, has become a bludgeon that nations can use to silence their people. • Seventeen countries in the Freedom House report approved or proposed laws curbing free speech online in the name of fighting misinformation, from Egypt’s law requiring social media users with more than 5, 000 followers to get licensed from the government, to Kenya’s outlawing of “fake news” online.

Combat The China Model • To reverse the trend toward digital authoritarianism, civil society and governments must catch up to the ways in which the internet is being co-opted by tyrants to further oppression around the world. • Global governing bodies and countries must “ensure that all internet-related laws and practices adhere to international human rights law and standards. • Nations must also enact strong data protection laws and give people control over how their data is used.

My Response • I personally disagree with internet censorship because the internet was created with the purpose of sharing ideas and passions and censoring that completely goes against the base ideas. • There have always been people who abuse their power but the internet is supposed to be the one place where everyone can speak their mind either anonymously or for credit and with The lack of freedom many individuals will cease their creative activities. • Disinformation is a real problem, but cutting off access to internet entirely is never the right response. It denies people the means of communication “at a time when they may need them the most, whether to dispel rumors, check in with family, or avoid dangerous areas.

Questions • Do you think people with restrictions on what they can view on the internet are at a disadvantage? • What can be done to better combat restrictions on the internet? • Should the government regulate what can or cannot appear ont the internet?