Major Internet Censorship Incidents in December 2020
2020 will always be remembered as the year when COVID-19 wreaked havoc on a global scale. However, this wasn’t the only evil that we were up against. Every day, new policies of Internet censorship are being imposed in some corner of the world or the other. A lot of these cases go unreported, but some of them have so far-reaching implications that they leave ripples all over the globe.
As this year draws to an end, we look back at some of those incidents of Internet censorship which can leave an everlasting mark on 2021 as well.
1. Chinese Authorities Force Apple to Remove Apps
Apple removed over 46,000 apps from its China App Store on the last day of the year, in compliance with Chinese regulations. This is the biggest such removal ever in a single day, as Apple set to meet a year-end deadline for all app developers and publishers to furnish a valid Chinese licence.
This move seems to have been targeted mainly at gaming apps, with the list including more than 39,000 mobile games, including Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Identity and NBA 2K20. Only 74 of the top 1,500 paid games on the App Store survived this purge.
Earlier this month, popular hotel review website Tripadvisor’s app had also been pulled from Apple’s App Store, along with 104 other apps. Chinese authorities had ordered then that all games had to be licensed by the government, and any unlicensed games would have to be removed by the end of the year.
The Chinese government claims that this crackdown is part of a routine ‘clean up’ of the Internet. Critics, however, believe that punitive action was taken against Tripadvisor since the regions of Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong and Macao are considered as separate territories on the app, while the Chinese government insists that all are part of China.
This is not the first time that Apple has removed apps under pressure from the Chinese government. In 2017, Apple removed hundreds of VPN apps from the China App Store, including ExpressVPN, VyprVPN and StarVPN, claiming that they breached local laws. At that time, ExpressVPN had responded by accusing Apple of “siding with censorship”.
In 2018, Apple was once again forced to remove 25,000 “illegal” lottery apps from its app store in China. There seems to be an increase in momentum in this trend, and it’s anybody’s guess as to how many more such apps would be outlawed in China this year.
2. Pakistan Enforces Regulations to Silence the Internet
Pakistani regulators have condemned and contemplated action against Internet giants Google and Wikipedia for “disseminating sacrilegious content.”. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which is responsible for regulating the establishment, operation and maintenance of telecommunication systems in Pakistan, has called for the immediate removal of “unlawful content” from Google and Wikipedia.
Use of the Internet in Pakistan is regulated through the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA). Legislated in 2016, PECA legalised censorship of the Internet based on broad notions of national security, the adherence to Islam, and the maintenance of public order, decency or morality.
Newly passed Pakistani Internet regulations broaden censorship and authorise widespread surveillance without judicial oversight, making it mandatory for online platforms to take down any content requested by Pakistani authorities within 24 hours, or even 6 hours in some cases. Companies that do not comply with these instructions can face fines of up to $3.14 million.
In this case, the regulators have singled out pages that name Mirza Masroor Ahmad as the current “Khalifa” or leader of Islam, contradicting dominant religious beliefs in the country. They have also claimed that the Google Play Store hosted an “unauthentic version of the Holy Quran”. The offending platforms have been warned of action under PECA if they remain non-compliant to the authorities’ diktat.
Over the last year, the government of Pakistan has sought to exercise greater control over the digital sphere by adapting policies which encourage mass censorship. In October, 2020, Pakistan had banned video-sharing platform TikTok over objectionable content. A few weeks earlier, several dating apps, including Tinder and Grindr, had been banned in a bid to restrict “immoral and indecent” content.
Tech giants like Google and Facebook have sought changes to the newly passed Internet regulations. Unfortunately, similar efforts by right activists have failed to make a significant impact. If the Pakistani government goes ahead and takes action against the tech giants, it would potentially set the stage for Internet censorship on a much larger scale.
3. Vietnam Threatens Facebook over Censorship Orders
Authorities in Vietnam have threatened to shut down Facebook if it does not follow the government diktat to censor more local political content on its platform. Facebook serves about 60 million users in Vietnam and earns an annual revenue of nearly $1 billion. The company had complied with a similar “government request” in April, and significantly increased its censorship of anti-state posts.
However, the company has faced additional pressure from authorities to censor more content in recent months. Vietnam’s foreign ministry, on its part, said that Facebook should abide by local laws and cease spreading information that violates traditional Vietnamese customs and infringes upon state interests.
Despite increasing openness to social change in Vietnam, the ruling Communist Party retains tight control of the media and tolerates little opposition. In fact, the country ranks fifth from the bottom in a global ranking of press freedom compiled by Reporters Without Borders, an international non-profit and non-governmental organization that safeguards the right to freedom of information.
Facebook has grown as the main platform for political dissenters in Vietnam, which has placed the website under constant government scrutiny. Pro-democracy activists, including noted Vietnamese singer Mai Khoi, however, have claimed that Facebook has now become just another means of state-sponsored strangulation. It is to be seen if the tech giant bows down further to the authorities or takes a stand against them.
4. Russia Finalises Internet Censorship Law
In our previous edition, we had mentioned how the Russian Parliament had issued a new draft law. If legislated, it would grant Russia’s federal media watchdog ‘Roskomnadzor’ the power to fully or partially block websites that they claim to have censored Russian state media content.
The high-profile bill has passed the third and final reading at the State Duma (the State Legislative Assembly) meeting last week. More details have emerged regarding this new law, which will apply to and introduce an array of new restrictions on global social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
Under this law, Russian or foreign citizens who receive assistance from abroad and engage in political activity must register as “foreign agents”. Critics have pointed out that the legal definition of “political activity” is extremely broad, including, for instance, monitoring of elections, providing opinions on state policies, participating in rallies, and so on.
Authorities can potentially wield this law against almost any voice of dissent ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections, including social media platforms. Russian President Vladimir Putin is known for his authoritarian measures, and this act is being considered as him further tightening the legal noose on Internet and individual freedoms.
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