This post was originally published on August 10, 2020.
Since the beginning of this year, countries have been scrambling to control the spread of Covid-19 by placing unprecedented measures and restrictions on freedoms we took for granted.
Restricted travel, social distancing, and contact tracing are only some of the emergency measures that have been crucial in reducing cases in countries that have implemented them rigorously.
In the midst of this sustained emergency, however, some countries have taken strides in acquiring new powers over press and internet freedoms that are ripe for abuse.
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Some of the extraordinary surveillance measures countries are taking—and the ensuing erosion of personal privacy—have also been coupled with efforts to control and censor disinformation surrounding the pandemic.
YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have all attempted to stem the tide of disinformation, but several countries also started introducing (and reinforcing) censorship measures surrounding the dissemination of information on the pandemic.
Censorship passed under the guise of public health concerns
Amid attempts to combat the throng of fake news and disinformation during a public health crisis, several countries around the world have taken a heavy-handed approach in controlling how information about Covid-19 is disseminated.
Countries that were first affected by the virus had already started imposing fake news laws and variations of online censorship in February, followed up with fines, threats, and arrests of those accused of posting disinformation about the virus.
This has since continued throughout the year, with leaders being given, if not already possessing, emergency powers to tackle the pandemic, including the ability to introduce tighter restrictions on how the press reports on the virus and how freely their citizens can discuss the virus on social media.
This is more apparent in countries that already have inclinations to censor or control press and internet freedoms.
In March, the Philippines passed a Covid-19 law that not only gave swaths of emergency powers to its president, Rodrigo Duterte, but also criminalized the spreading of “false information,” punishable by two months in prison and a fine of 19,600 USD.
Thai authorities invoked the Computer Crimes Act—which criminalizes criticism of public officials on the basis of defamation or sedition—in attempts to silence journalists and public healthcare workers who have voiced their criticisms of the government’s response to the virus.
From April until June, Hungary introduced a set of emergency measures, among which was a law with prison terms of up to five years for anyone knowingly spreading misinformation. While the measures have since been overturned, the government has left the door open for such measures to be implemented again.
Other countries appear to be taking advantage of the global attention on the pandemic to pass further restrictions on internet freedoms. In the latest of restrictions on internet freedom in the country, Turkey will require all social media platforms working in the country to have servers there from October 1, creating a way for the government to collect data on citizens.
Opportunities for the power-hungry
Even if these restrictions on press and internet freedoms were well-intended to stem the overwhelming volume of disinformation online during a public health crisis, there is reason to suspect a power grab. As Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, told The New York Times, “We could have a parallel epidemic of authoritarian and repressive measures following close if not on the heels of a health epidemic.” With no apparent end to the pandemic in sight, we are likely to see such restrictions on press coverage and social media sustained, if not tightened further.
When freedom of information is a matter of life and death
With waves of Covid-19 still occurring globally and our understanding of how the virus works (and how it can be combated) still incomplete, it is a matter of life and death that true information about it be allowed to flow unhindered by censors, firewalls, and threats of imprisonment. After all, media censorship exacerbated the spread of the Spanish Flu in 1918. Let’s not have that history repeated a century later.
Disinformation very much exists online, but attempts to censor it even with the most well-meaning of intentions should not be used as an excuse to trample freedoms that, like with a lot of things, we took for granted until now.
Comments
I truly believe that the whole pandemic crisis is BS. I don’t believe for one second that there is any real threat It is just a tool to control everyone. Nothing about the covid-19 pandemic adds up. I ‘m not going to itemize each thing that doesn’t make sense because my original statement is accurate. Nothing about it adds up or makes sense. I’m more than a little bothered that my VPN provider gives it any credibility. It is all a lie. If alarms didn’t immediately sound in your head when they first mentioned it your probably trusting them too much. All actions since have shown it’s nothing about health concerns it’s about control. I do realize that a pandemic is possible and most likely unavoidable. They have happened before and will again but this one isn’t real.
Also, legitimate sources like the Chinese virologist Dr. Li Men Yeng have been silenced with papers stating that the virus was made as a bioweapon in Wuhan and the wet markets as the claim are just “smoke screens”.
I agree with you 100 percent. I have seen life threatening censorship take place where credible doctors and scientific studies from University journals are removed even the the hindrance of that information has caused a good many deaths. On Facebook, they censored the CDC’s own statistics which released the latest information on the lethality of the Covid-19 virus. By the end of June 2020, the virus weakened greatly. The survival rate now averages out across all ages at 99.96%. Yet they censored this knowledge, and it continues to be is hidden at all times. It was also censored when someone attempted to post the World Health Organization’s declaration that the shut downs (which destroyed the global economy) were of no benefit–and were, in truth, destructive –as they will end in the starvation of many millions of people down the line. This starvation is already taking place. The human rights abuses have been atrocious. Unmatched in all history. In some countries they shoot people in the head if they have not worn a mask in public. And constantly I hear this: “IT IS FOR YOUR PROTECTION.” I hear this cold statement delivered as they turn me away from essential resooyurc4es and never consider the human being you are. The masks make that easier to do.
It is dehumanizing.,
As life saving information is denied a once free people, the truth is called false information by these invisible and uncredentialled mystery persons we never see or hear anything about. The truth they shamelessly remove even though it is backed by science, is never countered with their scientific studies or a semblance of evidence which supports their alternative position they claim is the truth. Their hubris is so enormous they seem to really think they are so superior to the rest of us, their unbacked statements are all the evidence anyone should ever need. Have you ever seen them defend their own proclaimed truth by anything scientific? I never have! All these random “fact checkers” ever do is increase the number discrediting adjectives in their sentence to trigger their chosen mental response for you and others to have. I am choking on the totalitarian trigger words they overuse like “conspiracy theories, false information, baseless claims, misinformation, misleading or dangerous information” and so on. Nothing is ever backed with facts. NOT EVER!!
They constantly hide and censor proven science that would relieve the fear of the population and set us free. They will do ANYTHING to maintain this mass control over the population they have secured to manipulate everyone in any direction they please. We have airlines and health facilities mandating an experimental vaccine while letting us know nothing will change anyway. No end in sight is ever offered.
no numbers to reach. Absolutely no hope to have restored life is ever given to the suffering people. Its a nightmare! These masks must be worn indefinitely–and even two or three masks now!!
I am a disabled woman who cannot get healthcare most of the time. It has made my condition deteriorate to the point that I am uncertain I will live much longer. You cannot find a single scientific study to support the wearing of masks as an effective protection against any illness–let alone a virus that is not much worse than the common cold at this point. In fact–there are growing studies showing the chronic wearing of masks is detrimental to your health. The science journals show you are MORE LIKELY to get infected wearing these masks, and many people are developing respiratory issues, and illnesses because of these useless and dehumanizing control tactics. I am not the only one who has horrific panic attacks wearing one, so I am essentially exiled from living at all. It is killing me and many others.
When the tide turns one day–I believe we will see actual tribunal level executions for an unspeakable scope of crimes against humanity. And for what!? The benefit of the globalists who are the political and corporate elites.
And on that day when they can no longer suppress so much truth and justice finally begins, I will sit in the front row to watch those responsible for all this hang from the neck until dead! And I used to be against the death penalty. But this has gone beyond the pale. It is a Hitler level offense times 100. All the weak, powerless, vulnerable and voiceless people who have died in isolation and despair banned from their loved ones or any comfort because of these arrogant and greedy cold-hearted oligarchs who think the people are their property and quite STUPIDS to boot!!