Twitter falters in Turkey, Pakistan blocks Wikipedia, and Tibetans stare down a new cyberlaw
Natural disasters almost always have reverberations in digital space, and the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that shook Turkey and northern Syria on Monday was no exception. The quake leveled entire city blocks, injured tens of thousands and has killed more than 15,000 people so far. Tremors were still being felt as I drafted this edition. It caused internet outages across the region, and as of yesterday, most internet providers in Turkey had blocked Twitter. This is a big deal, since Twitter can often play a vital role in disaster relief. But right now, both Turkish authorities and Elon Musk seem to be standing in its way. More on this below.
China’s spy balloons have captured more than their share of headlines this week, but I’m interested in catching up on Tibet, where new amendments to the autonomous region’s cyberlaw recently went into effect. Little has been written about it in English so far, but RFA ran a story explaining that the law criminalizes online activities (such as social media posts) by “anyone seen to be posing a threat to national security and public interest, deemed to be anti-socialist, or seen as engaging in separatism by maintaining any association with Tibetan independence groups or individuals.” Gonpo Dhondup, President of Tibetan Youth Congress, told RFA that “the law is also a strategic move by the Chinese government to disconnect Tibetans inside Tibet [from] those in exile.”
Wikipedia is now completely blocked in Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world, on grounds that there is “blasphemous” content in some of its articles, though public documentation about the ban doesn’t offer specifics. I caught up with Farieha Aziz, leader of the tech law advocacy group Bolo Bhi, who said this is the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s way of “flexing its muscles” as the country approaches its next major election. Aside from the obvious barrier this puts between people and an enormous information resource, the ban has economic implications too. Aziz noted that major voices in Pakistan’s tech industry were quick to speak out. “When the [telecommunication authority] takes these ad hoc measures, people don’t want to invest in the tech sector, because it shows that anything can be shut down at any time, for any reason.”
TURKEY TAKES TWITTER OFFLINE
When crisis strikes, people turn to social media — some to get news updates, others to report what they’re seeing, or to call for help.