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School exams and morning TV shows behind the latest raft of internet shutdowns | Coda Story

Cutting off the internet has become a go-to strategy for governments eager to disrupt expressions of dissent. Entire regions and even countries have gone offline, ripped clean from the internet from one day to another. This happened during a coup a year ago in Myanmar, large-scale opposition protests in India, or elections in Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chad.

Increasingly, many in Western countries are oblivious when this happens, compounding the isolation endured by people taken offline. Here are some internet blackouts you probably don’t know about:

1) In January, Kazakhstan made headlines because of its mass anti-government protests and the total internet blackout that followed. The Kazakh government has been in the habit of throttling the internet for a while though. For example, on May 9, 2019, the presidential election day, authorities cut off internet access coinciding with detentions of activists and journalists participating in the demonstrations at the time. In 2012, Kazakhstan’s parliament amended a national security law allowing the government to shut down internet and mobile connections during riots or anti-terrorist operations.

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Source: School exams and morning TV shows behind the latest raft of internet shutdowns | Coda Story