Sunshine Week webinar: What to know about Internet shutdown trends, today
An open and free Internet is widely seen as essential to journalists to both conduct their reporting and to disseminate their work. But a worsening trend of authoritarian and illiberal governments moving to erect digital firewalls and cut off Internet access -- particularly during times of natural disaster or political crisis -- is imperiling the ability of large swaths of the global population to stay informed and for journalists to track critical news developments.
A virtual panel discussion at 11:30 a.m., Friday, will delve deep into this worrying trend and the spread of Internet "kill switches," and what it specifically means for a free press.
Register now to join the program, which is being produced by the National Press Club’s Press Freedom Committee and nonprofit affiliate Journalism Institute in honor of Sunshine Week.
As evidence of the worrying trend. more countries than ever in 2022 saw Internet shutdowns, with at least 187 incidents documented across 35 countries, according to the digital rights group Access Now.
The panel will discuss:
- Regional and national trends in the use of Internet shutdowns in places as diverse as India, Iran, Myanmar, and Turkey;
- How Internet shutdowns differ from the more comprehensive control of firewalls favored by China and more recently Russia; and
- What privately and publicly funded digital tools are available to help journalists and the general public circumvent Internet controls such as throttling and filters.
Panelists are:
- Ksenia Ermoshina, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and Center for Internet and Society
- Natalia Krapiva, tech-legal counsel for digital rights watchdog group Access Now
- Nat Kretchun, senior vice president for programs at the Open Technology Fund, part of the U.S. taxpayer-funded U.S. Agency for Global Media
- Moderator: Rachel Oswald, National Press Club press freedom team lead and a foreign policy reporter for CQ Roll Call