Commentary: Social media shutdowns don't reduce violence but fuel it further

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Not a single shutdown has followed with any sort of evidence that it worked to protect public safety, says Stanford University Jan Rydzak.

that claimed more than 250 lives on Apr 21, the government of Sri Lanka shut off its residents’ access to social media and online messaging systems, including Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Snapchat and Viber.Advertisement

It was one of 188 network shutdowns or large-scale disruptions to digital communication that year all around the world, according to digital rights advocacy organization Access Now. In study after study, civil society organisations have documented the human rights problems caused by internet shutdowns and the economic damage they produce.

A man watches a video on his mobile phone as he commutes by a suburban train in Mumbai, India, March 31, 2016. Shutdowns, however, are fixed in time and space, and their effects blanket large swathes of an area’s population. This lets scholars study their effects with more confidence. In Africa, governments that own the communication infrastructure and leaders who rule in virtual perpetuity are more inclined to pull the plug, but there is no evidence to suggest that shutdowns are effective in discouraging street protest or violent unrest.

 

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