Internet Freedom and Our Elections
In mid-November, Freedom House — an independent watchdog organization — released its annual report on Freedom on the Net detailing a significant decline in free and honest internet across nearly half of the 65 countries reviewed.
Why did the Votem team flag this report?
Simply put, we’re concerned about freedom as a process, not just as an idea.
Think about it this way: freedom, and the related idea of democracy, are critical concepts that underpin a significant amount of policy and culture globally.
But, for those ideas to have practical reality, of the kind that actually defines everyday experience, then society, governments, and markets need processes and systems that actually enable, instead of curtail, freedom.
The report details just how damaging an alteration in process can be. For instance, most striking to us is the increase in both external entities and governments manipulating online content and limiting access to internet, particularly during election-time. The study reveals that disinformation techniques played a significant part in elections in at least 18 countries over the past year, both to disrupt those in power and to protect ruling regimes, such as in the Philippines, Turkey, and Venezuela.
Furthermore, 19 governments have shut down or restricted internet service for what are deemed political or security reasons, but are often used to fight opposition groups during contentious elections. For example, during Zambia’s August 2016 presidential election, mobile networks were reportedly disrupted for 72 hours in opposition-held regions.
This tactic doesn’t always work as planned though — while networks were shut down in Gambia the evening before the 2016 presidential election, democracy prevailed and Yahya Jammeh, the President who had sequestered power for almost 22 years, was defeated.
With mobile internet use becoming the most common mode of internet access across the world, an increasing number of governments have targeted mobile networks — half of all internet shutdowns in the past year were mobile-specific. This can be particularly harmful to the representation of marginalized groups in elections.
With these sobering findings, it’s no surprise that trust in democratic process is at an all-time low. With 3.4 billion people having access to the internet, and global traffic from mobile networks surpassing fixed-line access for the first time in 2016, it’s clear that transparent, secure access to the internet will play a key role in improving trust in voting.
If you want to see how Votem is improving digital democracy, go here. You can also read the full report here.
