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telecommunications
Pakistan Election-Day Internet Blackout Condemned as 'Reckless Attack on People's Rights'
"The decision to suspend telecommunications and mobile internet services on an election day is a blunt attack on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," said an expert with Amnesty International.
Feb 08, 2024
A leading international human rights group condemned Pakistani authorities on Thursday for shutting down the country's internet services as voters headed to the polls to cast their ballots in a long-delayed election marred by military interference, terrorist violence, and the imprisonment of the nation's most popular politician, former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
"The decision to suspend telecommunications and mobile internet services on an election day is a blunt attack on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," Livia Saccardi, Amnesty International's interim deputy director for South Asia, said in a statement issued as polls closed in the world's fifth-most populous nation.
"It is reckless to impede access to information as people head out to polling stations on the heels of devastating bomb blasts and what has been an intense crackdown on the opposition in the lead-up to the elections in the country," said Saccardi. "Unwarranted restrictions on dissemination of information, despite reassurances to the contrary from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority and Election Commission of Pakistan, are in breach of people's human rights at this critical time in Pakistan."
The internet blackouts across the country were one of many factors that called into question the legitimacy of Thursday's vote, in which dozens of parties competed for nearly 270 seats in the lower house of the Pakistani Parliament as well as positions in regional governments. The Parliament will be tasked with choosing a prime minister after the results are tallied.
Video footage posted to social media showed long lines at polling stations, but early government reports suggested that overall turnout was low relative to other elections in recent years.
Sayed Bukhari, who served as an adviser to Khan, disputed claims of low turnout, calling them a ploy by Pakistan's caretaker government to "rig the votes."
"So this what this incompetent and compromised caretaker government and its officials will do this next, mark my words!" Bukhari wrote. "Despite a historic turnout in most of the country... they will now spread the fake narrative that the voter turnout was very low."
"No extra time to vote has been granted as it usually always does," he added, noting that polls closed as many were still standing in line to vote. "How many channels are going to play this narrative?"
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) are the three dominant parties in the nation's politics. The Associated Pressnoted ahead of Thursday's vote that "the top contender is PML-N and on its ballot are two former prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif."
"However," the outlet added, "it is the absence from the ballot of PTI's founder, cricket legend turned Islamist politician Imran Khan, that's at the forefront of public discourse in Pakistan."
Just a week before the contest, Khan was hit with two lengthy prison sentences—10 and 14 years—on consecutive days, one for his alleged release of state secrets and the other for corruption charges that the former prime minister and his allies say were politically motivated.
Khan, who was removed from power in a no-confidence vote in 2022, was already in prison facing corruption allegations before the closed-door trials concluded last week. The no-confidence vote was backed by the U.S. State Department.
Ahead of Thursday's election, as The Intercept's Ryan Grim wrote Wednesday, Pakistan's government worked hard to suppress Khan's popular PTI party, including by banning its famous electoral symbol—a cricket bat—and arresting members of the party.
"With the loss of its bat, PTI was converted from a formidable political party to a loose group of individuals with no legal affiliation overnight, effectively disenfranchising millions of citizens who placed their trust in PTI as a political entity," Grim wrote. "The move has been severely criticized as a 'huge blow to fundamental rights' by the Pakistani legal fraternity and civil society."
In an Economistop-ed written from prison last month, Khan warned that elections held under such conditions "would be a disaster and a farce, since PTI is being denied its basic right to campaign."
"Such a joke of an election would only lead to further political instability," Khan wrote. "The only viable way forward for Pakistan is fair and free elections, which would bring back political stability and rule of law, as well as ushering in desperately needed reforms by a democratic government with a popular mandate. There is no other way for Pakistan to disentangle itself from the crises confronting it. Unfortunately, with democracy under siege, we are heading in the opposite direction on all these fronts."
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Gaza Internet Blackout Conceals Israel's Human Rights Violations—And Is Itself One
"It is unconscionable to toy with connectivity amidst unprecedented violence and unfathomable human suffering," said one campaigner, demanding global action "to end the war and internet shutdowns."
Jan 18, 2024
Human rights advocates sounded the alarm as Thursday marked the seventh straight day of a near-total telecommunications blackout in the Gaza Strip—the ninth and longest outage since Israel declared war in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7.
"For over 100 days, Gaza has endured on-and-off disruptions and internet shutdowns, with its people now facing the longest blackout since October," said Kassem Mnejja, a campaigner with the digital rights group Access Now.
"With the people of Gaza continually in the dark, documenting and sharing information about what is happening on the ground is increasingly challenging, if not outright impossible," added Mnejja, whose group is calling for a physical and digital cease-fire.
Paltel, a Palestinian internet service provider (ISP), said on social media last week: "We regret to announce that all telecom services in Gaza Strip have been lost due to the ongoing aggression. Gaza is blacked out again."
"Long hours of service interruption," the ISP
added Thursday. "How many loved ones have we lost? How much do we worry about our loved ones?"
Despite Israel's claims that its troops are targeting militants in the Hamas-governed enclave, Israeli forces have killed at least 24,620 Palestinians—mostly women and children—and wounded another 61,830, according to officials in Gaza. Thousands more remain missing in the rubble that used to be homes, hospitals, mosques, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.
Sharing a new graph from the watchdog NetBlocks that shows network connectivity in Gaza throughout the war, Mohammed Khader, policy manager at the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, noted that the start of the current blackout coincided with International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearings for the South African-led case accusing Israel of genocide.
This blackout began the same day as South Africa\xe2\x80\x99s ICJ case on Israel\xe2\x80\x99s genocide in Gaza.\n\nLike the blackout that followed the 2019 Khartoum Massacre in Sudan, this is an intentional effort by Israel to isolate Palestinians from the world and hide the full scale of destruction.— (@)
The section of South Africa's 84-page application to the ICJ summarizing genocidal acts states that "Israel is deliberately imposing telecommunications blackouts on Gaza and restricting access by fact-finding bodies and the international media. At the same time, Palestinian journalists are being killed at a rate significantly higher than has occurred in any conflict in the past 100 years."
A Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate volunteer
said last week that the group has evidence that at least 96 of the 109 Gaza reporters whose deaths it documented "were deliberately and specifically targeted by surgical Israeli strikes against them."
After an Israeli airstrike killed Wael Abu Fannouna on Thursday, Gaza officials announced that at least 119 members of the media have been killed since October 7. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has identified 76 of them.
"A communications blackout is a news blackout," CPJ stressed in a late October statement about Gaza—as Anealla Safdar, Al Jazeera's Europe editor, recalled in response to the NetBlocks update on Thursday.
"This can lead to serious consequences with an independent, factual information vacuum that can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation," CPJ warned at the time, also highlighting that targeting journalists or media infrastructure constitutes possible war crimes.
"At this dark hour, we stand with journalists," the group added, "with those truth-seekers whose daily work keeps us informed with facts that shed light on the human condition and help to hold power to account."
In addition to limiting on-the-ground reporting on the war, the current blackout "left civilians unable to call for help and aid workers struggling to reach them as Israeli airstrikes rained down on the south," The New York Timesreported Wednesday.
According to the newspaper:
Airstrikes and fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants in Khan Younis have been so intense that repair crews have had trouble reaching the damaged sites, Paltel said. Last week, two of its workers, in the process of making repairs, were killed when a company car was fired upon, Paltel said, adding that it had coordinated the repairs with the Israeli authorities in advance. The Israeli military said the episode had been referred for investigation.
"Internet shutdowns are a matter of life and death in Gaza," declared Marwa Fatafta, Access Now's MENA policy and advocacy director.
"It is unconscionable to toy with connectivity amidst unprecedented violence and unfathomable human suffering," Fatafta said. "The international community must act now to end the war and internet shutdowns. The silence so far has been glaring."
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Gaza Telecom Networks Face 'Complete Halt' as Another Blackout Nears
Blackouts have "severely affected the delivery of vital services to what remains of the crumbling medical facilities treating thousands of ailing victims of the unrelenting assault on Gaza," said one advocate.
Nov 15, 2023
In a matter of hours, Amnesty International said Wednesday, Gaza is expected to "plunge into another total communications blackout" unless Israel lifts the total blockade that has kept fuel from reaching the besieged enclave for more than a month.
Two major telecommunications firms announced that their data servers have begun shutting down due to the rapidly dwindling energy supply—affecting operations at hospitals where medical workers are already struggling to care for thousands of injured people and preventing civilians from seeking help.
"Israel's ongoing refusal to deliver sufficient fuel and restore power will bring Gaza's communications network to a complete halt," said Rasha Abdul-Rahim, program director at Amnesty Tech. "It has also severely affected the delivery of vital services to what remains of the crumbling medical facilities treating thousands of ailing victims of the unrelenting assault on Gaza and has hampered the rescue of injured people trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings. This will be further exacerbated by the collapse of communications services, which in itself could amount to a violation of international law."
On Wednesday, Israel allowed the first fuel truck to enter Gaza since its bombardment began on October 7, but Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said the 23,000 liters trucked into the enclave are just a fraction of what is needed at hospitals, communications centers, water treatment plants, and humanitarian facilities.
"It is appalling that fuel continues to be used as a weapon of war," Lazzarini told Al Jazeera, noting that 160,000 liters of fuel are needed daily just to run the U.N.'s refugee shelters, where 800,000 people have sought safety. "This seriously paralyzes our work and the delivery of assistance to the Palestinian communities in Gaza."
Since October 11, said Amnesty, Gaza has had communications connectivity of about 30% below pre-conflict levels. The enclave has faced three total blackouts that lasted 24-48 hours, leaving residents without access to rescue services or the ability to make sure their loved ones were alive and well.
The blackouts, said the group, have also prevented international and local reporters and groups from documenting human rights violations.
During one 48-hour blackout from October 27-29, Israel bombed the areas surrounding al-Shifa, al-Quds, and Indonesian hospitals, killing at least 302 people, according to Gaza health officials.
"Against the backdrop of devastating airstrikes on critical civilian infrastructure and dwindling fuel reserves, civilians in Gaza cannot afford another blackout, which risks becoming a protracted period of no communication, darkness, and invisibility," said Abdul-Rahim. "Israel must immediately lift its blockade on Gaza and allow the entry and distribution of fuel and lifesaving aid for civilians. Israel is subjecting the civilian population to collective punishment, which is unlawful and cannot be justified, while cutting them off from each other and rest of the world as it does so."
Amnesty International reiterated its demand for an immediate cease-fire and the restoration of all telecommunications infrastructure to ensure injured people can seek help and humanitarian organizations can keep their operations running.
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