Has Iran copied Zimbabwe in weaponising internet blackouts?

By Blessing Mbalaka

THE DEATH of Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody in Iran last month, has become a catalyst for protests across that country.

Women, in response to the injustice of her death, have burnt their hijabs in rebellion against the strict clothing laws.

Local security forces have clashed with these civilians, in their attempt to re-establish social order.

Aside from the police brutality, the Iranian government has imposed an internet blackout to help disrupt the communication channels of those who seek to act in rebellion.

An internet blackout, in the case of Iran, was used as a tool to disrupt communication between rebellious protesters.

The case of Iran is not an isolated one, internet blackouts have emerged as a state’s apparatus for social order.

In the case of Zimbabwe, the internet blackout in 2019 was meant to help reduce the pandemonium from the protests against rising fuel prices.

Before the blackout, Zimbabwe citizens received communication from the largest telecommunications service provider, Econet, stipulating that the internet had been suspended, as per the government’s request.

The narrative which surfaced was that the state wanted to impose a violent crackdown on protesters, but feared a social media backlash.

Many in the diaspora were concerned during this period because nobody knew the extremes the Zimbabwean government would be willing to go to.

The world waited in anticipation for the re-establishment of the internet, to check if Zimbabwean citizens had been harmed.

The UN noted that during this period, hundreds of Zimbabweans were jailed and beaten for their protests.

In the aftermath of the protests, according to The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, 68 Zimbabweans were treated for gunshot wounds while more than 100 had to be treated for stabbings and gashes. Based on this, this internet blockade had malicious intentions.

It is peculiar to close the internet to hide the chaos within Zimbabwe from the global order because the truth would surface inevitably.

One rationale could be how internet blockades can protect the officers on the ground. For example, if people are aware (via social media) of the number of police officers at a specific location during a protest, it can become easy to plan and mobilise equitable numbers to over-power the state forces.

Much discourse has emerged surrounding Elon Musk’s deployment of Starlink satellites into space. These satellites were invented for the sole purpose of providing internet access to regions which may not have access due to legislation, but these technologies could be repurposed as a countermeasure against tyrannical internet restrictions.

However, it should be noted that there is no evidence which suggests that the Starlink data transmission frequency cannot be stopped with a signal jammer. This thus implies that the state, if it wants to, can prematurely interrupt your Netflix and chill.

The state’s potential use of internet blockades is a dilemma which may become a global concern in tyrannical regimes.

The Institute of Pan African Thought and Conversation, among other disruptive research institutes, will be looking to explore whether such dilemmas can or cannot be alleviated with the adoption of disruptive technologies in countries such as Iran (2022) and Zimbabwe (2019).

The conference will take place on October 20–21 and involve political discourse surrounding the intersectionalities between technology and society. It is critical to help ensure that these dilemmas gather further research so that the weaponisation of internet blockages can become a constitutionally enshrined right globally.

The melancholic killing of Masha Amini has contributed to the state’s extreme measures to nullify public discontent, and the adoption of internet blockades has become one such measure. In a country which is not safe for women, these brave rebels should not be made to fight without the public being aware. Therefore, the global community should look to technology and other means to help ensure that the public is aware of what happens during these protests. Yes, it could be that the footage will surface eventually, but not much can be done to save lives if genocide has already transpired. The internet can act as a global panic button, and it is unjust to deny the public such a privilege.

Research into providing internet to all is imperative because this could help us ensure that people in regressive societies are not compromising the human rights of their citizens. In the case of Zimbabwe, it was made apparent that a state can abuse its power by blocking the internet, and, in the case of Iran, a replication of Zimbabwe’s crackdown might lead to a similar occurrence of the unjust melancholy of hidden state retribution.

Blessing Mbalaka is a junior researcher at the Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation at the University of Johannesburg.

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