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As war in Nagorno-Karabakh rages, so does a pandemic · Global Voices
Maxim Edwards

Buildings in central Stepanakert after bombardment by the Azerbaijani military, mid-October 2020. Photo (c): Régis Gente. Used with permission.
Nobody can self-isolate in a warzone.
And a warzone is exactly what Nagorno-Karabakh has become. On September 27, heavy fighting broke out amid an attempt by Azerbaijan to recapture the South Caucasus territory. The ongoing war is now the most serious violence since 1994, when a brittle ceasefire left Nagorno-Karabakh under the control of ethnic Armenian forces as a de-facto state. Although Nagorno-Karabakh is unrecognised by Armenia, Yerevan provides extensive military and economic support, and most residents of the region are Armenian citizens.
The Azerbaijani armed forces have bombarded the capital Stepanakert with artillery, drones, and according to a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, cluster munitions. Civilian casualties have been reported in the city, many of whose 55,000 inhabitants have fled to neighbouring Armenia. Those who remain must take shelter in bomb shelters and basements. There has also been disruption to the city's electricity supply.
So far, two Russian-brokered humanitarian ceasefires have collapsed. Azerbaijani armed forces have made rapid gains in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh, along the Iranian border. At the time of writing, Azerbaijani soldiers are a matter of kilometres from the main transport artery between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, known as the Lachin Corridor.
As fighting continues, the question is now not whether Karabakh faces a humanitarian crisis, but how it can be averted. This war is being fought in the shadow of a pandemic — COVID-19 looms over an internationally unrecognised state, nearly severed from its only link to external support, as winter approaches.
The last figures from the de-facto Ministry of Healthcare of Nagorno-Karabakh were quoted by Armenian investigative website Hetq on September 26, the day before hostilities began. It stated that there were 421 recorded COVID-19 cases in the territory. That week, Armenian-language media also reported that Nagorno-Karabakh had recorded 12 new COVID-19 cases in a single day; already a large spike for the territory of 140,000.
It appears that the healthcare authorities have not released new COVID-19 statistics since the war began.
Global Voices attempted to contact the Nagorno-Karabakh Ministry of Healthcare without success. However, on October 22, de-facto Healthcare Minister Ararat Ohanjanyan told the Associated Press that many doctors and nurses in Karabakh had known that they were infected but kept quiet about it. “We didn't have time to track down those infected while Stepanakert came under heavy shelling, and that allowed contagion to spread,” said Ohanjanyan, who himself continues to work despite having tested positive for the virus.
Effectively fighting a pandemic while attempting to survive a war may be nearly impossible. According to a EuroNews report from October 21, some COVID-19 patients in Stepanakert have had to take shelter from bombs alongside everybody else, increasing the risk of infection.
“Objectively and subjectively, nobody can pay enough attention to the preventative measures,” explained Karabakh's Human Rights Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan in a telephone conversation.
Lika Zakaryan, a Stepanakert-based journalist, put it more bluntly in an online exchange with Global Voices. “Nobody cares about COVID-19 right now. Many people are probably infected, as we have war wounded in the hospitals,” said the reporter for CivilNet, an Armenian online publication.
Zakaryan added that to her knowledge most hospitals in Nagorno-Karabakh, including the general hospital in Stepanakert, are functioning. Mher Musaelyan, a medical clinic director at Stepanakert's Republican General Hospital, confirmed to Global Voices in a telephone conversation that he was not aware of any large-scale monitoring of the COVID-19 infection rate. “Our main task right now is to care for the wounded,” explained Dr. Musaelyan, who stressed that doctors would still do their best to care for anybody presenting COVID-19 symptoms.
However, some medical infrastructure has been damaged and disrupted by shelling. For example, though it is likely that the territory's largest hospitals have their own small generators, an Azerbaijani attack on Stepanakert's main power station resulted in the city losing electricity on October 3. On October 14, photos emerged showing the bombing of a hospital in the fiercely contested town of Martakert, in what Armenian officials say was a deliberate attack, which their Azerbaijani counterparts denied.
This war comes alongside a surge in COVID-19 cases across the entire South Caucasus.
Armenia was initially the hardest hit. On October 22, public media reported a rise of 2,306 COVID-19 cases in a single day — the worst since the country's epidemic began in March. Yet there is no good news from Azerbaijan; on October 21 Baku reported a record daily number of 825 COVID-19 cases.
Given this sharp rise in infections, Armenian officials now doubt that their beleaguered healthcare system will be able to cope with extra demand. And that demand is substantial, for the war has already led thousands of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh to flee into southern Armenia. Beglaryan estimates that up to 60 percent of the territory's population has already been displaced.
“Our healthcare system may soon collapse if the situation continues as such, and we might soon not be able to hospitalise severe [COVID-19] cases. We currently have 2,000 patients in hospitals,” warned the epidemiologist Lusine Paronyan in a press conference on October 22. Paronyan, who leads the Armenian Ministry of Healthcare's National Centre for Disease Control, added that the healthcare services were working with the military to ensure that, via contact tracing, the virus did not reach the front lines.
"We are tracing every single COVID-19 diagnosis to ask those who've been in close contact to isolate. This data is provided to the @ArmeniaMODTeam, so they're able to prevent the virus from getting to the frontlines." – Lusine Paronyan, RA Ministry of Health#Artsakh #Karabakh
— CIVILNET (@CivilNetTV) October 22, 2020
Paronyan and her colleagues also urged Armenians to recall that the country was now fighting two wars, and that neither had yet been won:
Senior official from Armenia's National Center for Disease Control & Prevention: Since the outbreak of war in Artsakh, COVID-19 numbers have dramatically increased – by 13%. Called for ppl to remain vigilant & follow safety guidelines.#COVID19 #ArtsakhStrong
— EVN Report (@evn_report) October 13, 2020
Armenia's Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan suggested that Azerbaijan's leadership would also be culpable for any rise in COVID-19 deaths in Armenia and Karabakh:
Military #aggression during #covid19 #pandemic doubles the #terrorist nature of #Azerbajian leadership. #StopAzerbaijaniAggression https://t.co/K4uJP71KLJ
— Arsen Torosyan (@AToros_Official) October 22, 2020
International organisations are increasingly invoking the pandemic in their appeals for de-escalation.
“Armenia is not winning. Azerbaijan is not winning. But COVID is winning. We need to stop,” urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierres on October 21.
For Hans Klüge, head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), further hostilities will directly contribute to a serious spread in COVID-19 cases.
“I don't expect the war have an impact; I know that it already has,” concludes Beglaryan, the Human Rights Ombudsman. “It's very visible that the conflict has affected the COVID-19 situation negatively, very negatively. We don't have exact numbers because of the workload that the health system has. The health system is not testing and treating cases as properly as it was, so we don't have general statistics either. Based on my talks with doctors and the Minister of Healthcare, it's quite clear that the case numbers have increased multiple times. Not twice, not three times, maybe ten or fifteen. It's actively expanding.”
But our conversation was interrupted.
“They're striking again,” said Beglaryan, and dropped the call.
This evening, Stepanakert once again came under attack.

author: Maxim Edwards


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Dancehall star Buju Banton’s rejection of mask-wearing stymies Jamaican government’s efforts to stem ‘COVID-19 fatigue’ · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Screenshot of Jamaican dancehall star Buju Banton taken from his appearance in the video for the remix of fellow Grammy winner Koffee's song “Pressure.”
Like many other governments, Jamaica's political administration is facing an uphill battle around reinforcing its COVID-19 safety guidelines. With the number of new cases remaining high, deaths are reported almost daily. As of October 21, the island had a total of 179 deaths and 8,600 confirmed positive cases, 155 of which were new.
Despite such concerning figures, however, “COVID-19 fatigue” appears to be taking its toll. An increasing number of local media reports have highlighted instances of Jamaicans holding parties and breaking curfew rules, causing a number of miscreants to be charged.
So, when dancehall icon Buju Banton went on a diatribe against the wearing of masks — urging the Jamaican government to “free” his people — this did not help the efforts of the Ministry of Health and Wellness:
Tired! pic.twitter.com/KNrwtvFF4l
— HAWDCORE (@MissaSimith) October 21, 2020
Though hugely popular, Banton is also a divisive figure, and his rant received a generally disapproving response from Jamaican netizens. Addressing Banton's comments, Minister of Health and Wellness Christopher Tufton observed that while different views may contend, the government is “comfortable” with following the advice of clinicians when recommending COVID-19 protocols.
The Rastafarian deejay, who was deported from the United States in December 2018 after serving a seven-year prison term on drugs charges, enjoys a loyal following in Jamaica. Having previously expressed his views on Instagram, however, it quickly became apparent that not everyone — even within his own family — supported his views:
Reggae superstar #BujuBanton is not backing down from his early IG video post demanding for the mandated mask wearing to end!
His daughter has since advised folks to do the opposite and wear their masks. pic.twitter.com/6wWnFIE3d5
— Sound Chat Radio (@IrishandChin) October 21, 2020
Another of Banton's daughters, rookie politician Jodian Myrie, who is a local councilor for the governing Jamaica Labour Party, made her position clear:
Let us all as Jamaicans play our part in flattening this curve by continuing to wear our masks and practicing social distancing! Follow the protocols set in place to protect not only your life, but the lives of your loved ones.
— Jodian Myrie (@JodianMyrie) October 21, 2020
She also retweeted a comment by her sister Abihail:
Reiterated! https://t.co/xxCWjUr4IC
— Jodian Myrie (@JodianMyrie) October 21, 2020
COVID-19 has catapulted the Jamaican economy into a downturn with ripple effects from the decrease in tourism and the steady closure of small businesses. A recent survey conducted by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) shows a nearly 5 percent increase in the country's unemployment rate. As of July 2020, the country lost 120,000 jobs, causing the unemployment rate to rise from 7.8 percent one year prior, to the current 12.6 percent.
Against this backdrop, Banton recently appeared in a video remix of young dancehall star and fellow Grammy winner Koffee's song, “Pressure,” speaking to the injustice that gave rise to movements like Black Lives Matter, and increased inequity in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jamaica's substantial and influential entertainment industry, an important sustainer of its informal economy, is also under tremendous strain, with evening curfews effectively shutting down Kingston's vibrant nightlife. Although Jamaican netizens understand Banton's frustration, they largely expressed disappointment in his position. One Facebook user's comment echoed the views of many:
And of course Kanyé is dragged into this lol.. on a serious note please do not listen to Buju Banton here in this case he is 110% wrong. Wear your mask, wash your hands and socially distance.
The comment referenced Kanye West's visit to Jamaica in September, when the rapper tweeted a photograph of himself chatting with the deejay in Banton's recording studio. Neither of them wore a mask, despite West having had the virus earlier this year. One Twitter user joked:
One minute with kanye and Buju already losing it https://t.co/UX42ltzYQa
— ?QUARANTINE N CHILL?? (@ARealOne777) October 21, 2020
Even longtime fans of the dancehall star registered their disapproval:
Love Buju, but don't agree with that foolishness today. You're entitled to your own opinion but with a platform like that don't be another problem okay, we have enough. Be part of the solution or just SAY LESS.
— TWill?????? (@TWill876) October 21, 2020
Other Jamaican social media users suggested that people need to consider the threat of COVID-19 from a long-term perspective, and adhere to the recommended safety measures:
Oh my! Since Buju come home I saw him on some international interviews and my heart lifted with pride at his growth and consciousness, so what happened here? Covid fatigue? We all have to be patient and remember Covid is not like diabetes. It's new and we need patience.
— Brielle Patton (@briellemarleyp) October 21, 2020
Yo everytime someone like a Buju make those comments it set back government efforts. It pushes us back because it takes root somewhere. Masks work.
WEAR YOUR MASK!!!
— Sean #ENDSARS (@ji_er684) October 21, 2020
Others, however, were prepared to live and let live:
Ppl cussing Buju need to remember the man is a rasta so generally u ain't gonna find them believing in science. His views are one of conscience. Just like the ppl who against vaccines. Now, let's see if yall can force ppl to take a vaccine. We all have our views.
— Happy Jamaican (@happy_jamaican) October 21, 2020
On Facebook, one well-known lawyer roundly disagreed:
Freedom of speech does not allow you to bellow fire, in a jam packed theatre without justification.
Time for the Disaster Risk Management Act to be amended so that drivel, like that uttered by Mr. Mark MYRIE, AKA BUJU BANTON,can be prosecuted. The grounds of reckless population endangerment and creating public mischief should be charges under that Act.
Whether Banton's outburst was a product of deeply held religious beliefs [he is a devout Rastafarian], or an expression of frustration with the curtailment of the activity of the entertainment sector, he appears to have disappointed those Jamaicans who are still trying their best to stick to the rules.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Emma Lewis


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Failing to portray protesters as violent, Thai government lifts severe state of emergency · Global Voices
Prachatai

A pro-democracy protest on October 19 at Kasetsart intersection was held despite the prohibition on mass gatherings. Photo by Prachatai. Used with permission.
The original version of this article was published by Prachatai, an independent news site in Thailand, and was edited and republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha lifted the severe state of emergency on October 22, according to the Royal Gazette.
The state of emergency, which began on October 16, imposed restrictions on Bangkok and surrounding areas. They included a ban on public gatherings of more than five people, a ban on reporting information that threatened public stability, and control over transportation and access to certain buildings, in accordance with the Prime Minister’s orders.
The severe state of emergency was described as an “emergency in an emergency” due to the pre-existing use of the Emergency Decree in response to the coronavirus outbreak which the government extended for the 7th time until the end of November.
Protesters have been gathering on the streets of Bangkok and other provinces every day since October 14, demanding the resignation of Prayut, constitutional amendments, and monarchy reform.
The latest state of emergency decree was expected to continue until November, and its reversal is a victory for pro-democracy protesters who defied the annoucement for six straight days
Yesterday, Prayut gave a speech asking all groups to take one step back and told the protesters to rely on the parliamentary process to get things done. On October 20, the Cabinet approved a special session of parliament for a debate on October 26 to 27.
The anti-dictatorship protest on October 14 was part of an expected response after parliament postponed debate on constitutional amendments for 30 days on September 24, disappointing the protesters demonstrating in front of the parliament on that day.
The government claimed that the severe state of emergency was announced because of illegal protests in violation of the public assembly law, and specifically pointed to an incident where a royal motorcade passed through a protest site.
Three protesters, Ekkachai Hongkangwan, Boonkueanoon Paothong, and Suranat Paenprasoet, have been charged with allegedly harming the Queen’s liberty under the scarcely used Section 110 of the Criminal Code, which carries a penalty of “imprisonment for life or imprisonment of sixteen to twenty years.”
However, the government failed to demonize the protesters as public opinion largely did not believe that the protesters intended to harm the Queen. According to many media reports from the scene, the protesters actually opened a path for the royal motorcade to pass through.
In defiance of the government’s restrictions, the protestors gathered again on October 16. The government made the decision to disperse the peaceful protesters using water cannons with dye and a chemical irritant. The protesters, which included students, remained nonviolent, leading to criticism of the government for its excessively harsh measures, and provoking even more protesters to come onto the streets.
The government tried to control the narrative again by ordering the closure of media outlets which had given extensive coverage to the protests, including Voice TV, Prachatai, the Reporters, and the Standard. Their attempt backfired as the protesters continued the demonstrations and now included a demand for a free press. The court ordered the lifting of restrictions on the press on October 21.
The court ordered the lifting of media restrictions on October 21. Photo from Prachatai. Used with permission.
In their last attempt to provoke violence, pro-monarchy protesters in yellow shirts gathered at Ramkhamhaeng University to challenge the pro-democracy protesters. A minor clash took place between pro-monarchy and pro-democracy protesters, initiated by the pro-monarchy yellow shirts.
Leaked documents confirm that the government-sponsored the pro-monarchy gatherings by “inviting” people to join. Some reluctant volunteers defied orders by showing the three-finger symbol while wearing a yellow shirt.
To date, a majority of the protestors’ demands remain unmet, with major political parties insisting that they will not include monarchy reform in their agenda, and the government arresting anyone it can identify as a protest leader.

author: Prachatai


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Fighting disinformation and fact-checking the Myanmar election · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Screenshot of the homepage of the ‘Real or not’ fact-checking news website
Fact-checking is a basic verification process to expose disinformation. This is important for Myanmar since the communal violence that targeted minority ethnic communities in recent years was partly blamed on the use of social media platforms to spread hate speech and disinformation.
Since then, tech companies like Facebook have pledged to adopt measures to contain disinformation. In August, Facebook announced a set of measures it has unveiled in preparation for the November 8 elections in Myanmar such as the removal of “verifiable misinformation and unverifiable rumors that are assessed as having the potential to suppress the vote or damage the integrity of the electoral process”, the use of artificial intelligence to identify hate speech in 45 languages, including Burmese, limiting the number of times a message on Facebook can be forwarded to five since it is “a proven method of slowing the spread of viral misinformation”, and partnering with three fact-checking teams in the country.
Aside from Facebook, several groups have initiated fact-checking operations during the election campaign period.
Global Voices interviewed Thet Min, fact-checker for ‘Real or not’, a fact-checking news website, about their efforts to expose and stop disinformation in Myanmar. ‘Real or not’ is a project of Myanmar ICT For Development Organization (MIDO).
For MIDO’s fact-checking team, they are guided by these three questions in carrying out their work:
1. Relevance: why does this story need to be verified?
2. Methodology: how is this story verified?
3. Real or Not: what are the facts based on the evidence we found?
MIDO and its fact-checking team also engage users through a messenger chatbox.
They use official sources from the government and mainstream media reports to verify viral content that has been flagged as false. If necessary, they make direct contact with relevant parties before finalizing a report. Thet Min adds more about their work:
As our fact-checking team policy, we focus on the most viral content on social media which can have negative impacts towards the social, political situation in the country.
Thet Min emphasised the importance of the work they are doing ahead of the coming elections:
False information can change people's voting choice at election time.
One of the reports they published is regarding Radio Free Myanmar, which has a similar logo with news website Radio Free Asia. It is also reported for publishing  misinformation about the elections.
About [two weeks] ago, we discovered a fake news website that publishes about 10 false news items a day. The fake news website imitates the logo of Radio Free Asia and attacks the NLD [National League for Democracy] Party, ethnic armed groups, civil society groups and the media including fact-checkers, with false information.
NLD is Myanmar’s ruling party which defeated a military-backed party in the 2015 general election. NLD continues to be a target of disinformation from sources allegedly linked to the military.
But the NLD-led government is also accused of blocking more than 200 websites to contain disinformation even if the list included ethnic news media providing independent coverage in remote regions. The ‘Justice for Myanmar’ website exposing military corruption was also blocked for allegedly spreading rumors.
Thet Min shared some of the challenges they are facing today:
One of the main difficulties for us is having access from different stakeholders, particularly the government. In Myanmar, since some ethnic areas are in armed conflict situations, mis/dis information that came up into the form of propaganda and dangerous speech in the issues of conflicts are prominent. So it is difficult for the news media to obtain accurate information on those areas as they cannot get the evidence and voice from the people. For fact-checkers, it is hard for us to fact check most of the news from those areas. We can’t know the exact situation including numerical facts.
Myanmar has more than 100 ethnic groups with some of them engaged in armed conflict with the national government. The conflict in some townships of Rakhine in north Myanmar has led to internet disruption since June 2019. The government’s election body also announced the cancellation of elections in hotspot areas that could disenfranchise more than a million voters.
Thet Min gave this advice to Myanmar internet issuers:
People are sensitive during the election period. We want voters not to be biased in reading the news, whatever political parties they support. Voters might share false news about political parties that they don’t like without checking and verifying. Disinformation can damage our society.

author: Mong Palatino


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Official obfuscation trails the Lagos shooting of anti-police protesters  · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

The Lagos Lekki toll gate. The #EndSARS protesters were concentrated in front of the toll gate. Photo by S. Aderogba, December 15, 2018, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
At around 7 p.m. WAT, October 20, on what is now referred to as Black Tuesday, Nigerian security forces released live ammunition on unarmed youth protesters in Lekki toll gate, Lagos.
Barely 48 hours after, official government sources are now either trying to deny the incident or the fatality recorded.
Nigerian youth have staged peaceful nationwide protests since October 9, against police brutality inflicted by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad known as SARS.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on the morning of October 21, repudiated any record of fatality at the Lekki shooting during a live broadcast: “Three of the injured protesters have been discharged, while some are in the hospital. There is no record of any fatalities.”
The governor, later that day, recanted the no-fatality stance by admitting that “a life was lost at Reddington Hospital due to blunt force trauma to the head,” which he described as “an isolated case.”
But this runs contrary to investigations by Amnesty International which states that “the Nigerian army and police killed at least 12 peaceful protesters,” in both Lekki and Alausa, Lagos sites of the EndSARS mass action.
Sanwo-Olu also disowned ownership over the deployment of soldiers to Lekki, stating that “no governor controls the rules of engagement of the army.”
But the governor is not alone in this official muddling of the narrative about the Lekki killings.
The Nigerian Army, which through their verified Twitter handle has branded screenshots of news reports from foreign media as “fake news” coming from Reuters, New York Times, Globe & Mail, France24, and numerous local media like ThisDay, Vanguard, Nairametrics.
The Lagos State government (LSG) and the Nigerian Army (NA) have been on a denial spree without giving any account of what actually transpired on the night of October 20.
Protesters at the #EndSARS protest in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo by Kaizenify, October 13, 2020. Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The tons of multimedia evidence from protesters totally negate the spin by the LSG and the NA.
This first-hand report [gory video, viewers discretion advised] shows how one of the Lekki #EndSARS protesters had to feign death to fend off a soldier’s physical attacks on October 20. This heart-wrenching video captures a protester breaking with emotion as he sings the Nigerian national anthem, while gunfire pops in the background.
But protesters were not the only ones with testimonies of what transpired in Lekki on that Black Tuesday.
Journalist Fanny Facsar, DW News’ Africa correspondent and head of West Africa Bureau, was one of those who “made it out from Lekki tollgate alive” after the shootings.
Reporting about one of the most brutal nights since the #endSARS protests have begun two weeks ago. We got out safe – many others did not. Nigerians are calling it #blackTuesdayNigeria and #LekkiGenocide. Follow our coverage @dwnews pic.twitter.com/oGp9QMgiM2
— Fanny Facsar (@FannyFacsar) October 21, 2020
Facsar confirms in the above video that the Lekki toll gate was invaded by “people dressed in camouflage, gunmen, unclear whether they were the military or what kind of Nigerian security forces,” and released live ammunition on protesters. Facsar and her team “found a way to hunker down” and from their position, “lying down for at least an hour,” they were able to “witness what was going on around [them.] …There was chaos, there was panic, it was a huge mess,” Facsar said.
Additionally, journalists and human rights group have conducted independent verification of protesters’ claims. Their findings equally debunk the claims by both LSG and NA.
Investigations by Amnesty International from evidence collected “from eyewitnesses, video footage and hospital reports” asserts that “between 6:45 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. [WAT] on Tuesday, 20 October, the Nigerian military opened fire” on peaceful and unarmed protesters.
Investigations by the BBC, confirmed eyewitness account, that men dressed in military camouflage opened fire on protesters in Lagos, Nigeria at around 6:45 p.m. WAT Tuesday evening of October 20:
They started firing at we [us], the peaceful protesters, it was chaos. Somebody got hit straight beside me, and he died on the spot. They kept on shooting and shooting at us and it lasted for an hour and half. The Nigerian Army actually put barricades at both sides. Medical services couldn’t get to people. And the soldiers were actually picking up the dead bodies…
CNN spoke to eyewitnesses “from the scene of the shootings” who confirmed that “the protesters were barricaded on both sides of the toll gate and fired on.”
Video verified by Reuters on October 21, showed armed police in the Yaba area of Lagos, kicking a man as he lay on the ground. One officer fired into his back and dragged his limp body down the street.
Protesters at the #EndSARS protest in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo by Kaizenify October 13, 2020, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Nigerian netizens have been speaking up in face of the false spin and the effort to change the narrative about the killings.
Samuel Otigba, a Twitter user said that the whole ploy is to make the incident look “like a tall tale” with “zero soldiers, zero deaths”:
This 3 days curfew is strategic; project Clean Up. They are using the best PR company to do damage control rn. By the end of the curfew, our parents/older Nigerians would think we exaggerated this whole Lekki Massacre & it would sound like a tall tale. Zero soldiers, zero deaths.
— Samuel Otigba (@SamuelOtigba) October 21, 2020
This will be achieved by a government-sponsored social media “troll army” churning out propaganda to discredit the movement, asserts Ayobami:
The Government has a troll army, social media handles they can use for propaganda anytime. The troll army is now sharing fake images so that their influencers can then call them out as Fake news and attempt to discredit the entire movement.
— Ayobami Ayobami (@dondekojo) October 22, 2020
This has been the norm for Nigerian governments, to deny every incident by “querying eyewitness accounts, muddying the waters of the narrative”, Dr. Ike Anya opines:
To those of us old enough to remember June 12 '93 & aftermath, the tactics being deployed in Nigeria now are familiar. Querying eye witness accounts, muddying the waters of the narrative, briefing of global media, subtle & not so subtle ethnicity nudges, good cop,bad cop routine
— Ike Anya (@ikeanya) October 22, 2020
Young Nigerians, Moverick states, are now experiencing the same “horrors that their parents dealt with” while pushing back military dictatorship:
Finally, this generation have an idea of the horrors that their parents dealt with. Even with cameraphones and Internet, see the brutality, denials, and erasure that is happening. That's why you think your parents were cowards. May your children be kinder. #EndSARS #EndSarsNow
— Moverick (@moverick) October 22, 2020
Film producer Editi Effiòng tweeted that the Nigerian government had no intentions to grant any of the protesters’ demands, despite their initial promises to do so:
The amount of disinformation being attempted this morning can only tell us one thing – the government never planned to meet any demands and the young people were correct to not trust them.
— Editi Effiòng (@EditiEffiong) October 22, 2020
“We leave you to your conscience and law of humanity,” says Dupe Killa:
To the people pushing the sick narrative that the #LekkiMassacre did not happen, we leave you to your conscience and law of humanity.
However, the Govt has no hiding place. They HAVE TO give an official position on what happened to #EndSARS protesters on #blacktuesday
— DK (@dupekilla) October 22, 2020
As Alexander Onukwue asserts in TechCabal, while the establishment consistently alleges that “everybody is lying,” they are not “interested in volunteering the truth.” In order to cover their tracks, these state institutions seem to have “kicked off an operation against misinformation on social media across Nigeria,” says Onukwue.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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Pakistan lifts ban on TikTok with conditions · Global Voices
R Umaima Ahmed

TikTok-als-Puzzle by Christoph Scholz cc
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) lifted its ban on TikTok on October 19, only 10 days after it introduced it.
The regulator said it was reversing its decision after the Chinese company ByteDance assured authorities it will moderate content in compliance with Pakistan's laws.
PTA ordered the ban after the mobile video app failed to comply with the regulator's instructions to adopt “effective mechanisms for proactive moderation of unlawful online content,” it said on a statement on October 9.
In view of number of complaints from different segments of the society against immoral/indecent content on the video sharing application TikTok, pic.twitter.com/Vmp5umixeL
— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) October 9, 2020
Under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA 2016), dubbed as draconian by digital rights activists, the PTA has the power to order service providers to block or remove any piece of online content.
It has previously blocked a number of services, including YouTube that was banned from 2013-2016. It removed the three-year ban on YouTube after the Google-owned video-sharing website launched a local version that allows the government to demand the removal of material it considers offensive.
In August, PTA has written again to YouTube to remove objectionable content from its platform. The authority also blocked the online South Korean game PUBG on July 1; the ban was lifted on July 30 after PTA reached an agreement with the legal representatives of Proxima Beta Pte Ltd (PB), the game's maker.
There has been a lot of online debate around banning TikTok since its popularity spiked in Pakistan in the past two years.
In July 2019, a civil petition was filed in Lahore High Court seeking a nationwide ban on TikTok, claiming the app was “a great mischief of modern times” and it was “destroying the youth and promoting immoral activities.”
Arslan Khalid, a digital media adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, tweeted in July this year:
The recent exploitation of female tick tockers, the objectification & sexualization of young girls on tik tok was causing huge pain to the parents & was proving detrimental for our society .Tik Tok is being given final warning to work on their filters stopping obscene content pic.twitter.com/bjAHPZCk2J
— Dr Arslan Khalid (@arslankhalid_m) July 20, 2020
On October 2, the government revised its rules for blocking online content. According to Digital Rights Monitor, the federal government issued a notice for the implementation of new social media rules but the actual draft of the Rules are not yet available on the website of PTA and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications (MOITT):
The Federal Government had issued a notice for the notification of Rules for Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguard) Rules 2020 on the 16th of October 2020. The Rules, that have been drafted under Section 37 of Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016, have continued to amass criticism from local civil society and media organisations and local and international private sector technology companies.
A group of 12 civil society organisations and journalist unions and over 49 individuals released a statement to show their concern about these new Rules. They said that there has been no consultation with all stakeholders on the revised draft.
We would like to remind the cabinet and the government that drafting of rules that stand to have a detrimental impact on the digital ecosystem, economy, and online expression is not a task that should be rushed through without paying attention to the inputs of all involved stakeholders. […] The lack of transparency is not only alarming, it projects the intention of the government to disregard the concerns of individuals that have time and again been raised and communicated to government departments and officials.
The notification shared by the government said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is authorised to remove any online content they deem unlawful; the criteria for unlawful is described in subsection (1) of section 37 of the Act. The subsection says that “without any prejudice, if the online content goes against the glory of Islam, the integrity, security, and defense of Pakistan, or Public order, health, safety, decency, or morality, the PTA can and should remove it.”
All social media companies such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter will have to put up community guidelines in accordance with local regulations for their users in Pakistan. Platforms with more than half a million Pakistani users will have to get registered with the PTA and establish a registered office in the country within nine months of the implementation of the rules.
The Asia Internet Coalition, an industry association including internet companies like Amazon, Apple and Twitter, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan expressing regret that it wasn't consulted during the formulation of such rules.
The TikTok ban was met with plenty of criticism.
Two civil petitions challenging the ban were filed earlier this month in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the Singh High Court.
The petitions argued that TikTok “provides a platform for talented Pakistani citizens to exercise their right of expression and to demonstrate creativity” and that the ban was “a violation of the Constitution's Article 19,” which provides for freedom of expression.
Asad Baig, a digital rights activist and director of Media Matters for Democracy tweeted:
Tiktok is banned by PTA. Decision came weeks after IK expressed his displeasure over “obscenity & vulgarity” on the platform.
Arbitrary suspensions like these could throw Pak back to stoneages. We are alienating billion dollar companies & causing ourselves global embarrassment. https://t.co/UUdM06X4mb
— asad beyg (@asadbeyg) October 10, 2020
Amnesty International South Asia tweeted:
PAKISTAN: In the name of a campaign against vulgarity, people are being denied the right to express themselves online. The #TikTokBan comes against a backdrop where voices are muted on television, columns vanish from newspapers, websites are blocked and television ads banned.
— Amnesty International South Asia (@amnestysasia) October 9, 2020
Many Pakistani TikTok stars also criticized the ban. Creator Ashfaq Jutt, who's also the Senior Vice-President of Pakistan Kickboxing Federation, sent a legal notice to PTA urging them to revoke the ban as it violated his constitutional rights to information and freedom of expression.
Meanwhile on Twitter, hashtags such as #UnBanTikTok trended.
Bakhtawar Bhutto, daughter of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said:
Immoral content is not on tiktok, it’s embedded in our sexist society where women cannot wear yoga pants on tv or drive at night, & children are picked up & assaulted. Have deteriorated so much. Look what’s happening in madrassas, in open public spaces- the problem is NOT tiktok.
— Bakhtawar B-Zardari (@BakhtawarBZ) October 9, 2020
Marvi Soomro, an activist and also a TikToker, said:
Let me remind you @PTIofficial
Until and Unless you stop this banning culture and get some good laws to moderating unlawful content in accordance with laws of Pakistan. Nothing will stop. Tiktok has been replaced with many other apps. #UnbanTiktok @fawadchaudhry pic.twitter.com/WjgAuMFd6n
— MarviSoomro_Official (@MarviSoomro_) October 16, 2020
Nasir Khan Jan, an artist and model, called Pakistan “bannistan:”
TikTok has been banned. Abh sub theek hojaye ga, na rapes hongay, na ghalat kaam hoga. Welcome to Bannistan, where we ban music, art, poetry and the ability to question ones existence but then cry over why the people are extremists and there is so much violence in Pakistan! ❤?
— Nasir Khan Jan (@NKJModel) October 9, 2020
Still, some defended the ban:
#TikTok has been #BANNED in #Pakistan. GREAT! That'll bring the rape numbers down.
— Mr. S Occultist (@FreedomError404) October 9, 2020
#Pakistan #tiktokban #waqarzaka #JummaMubarak #JummahMubarak #FridayThoughts #FridayMotivation #fridaymorning #FridayVibes pic.twitter.com/GAvMJCH90q
— Peaceinwayofallah (@Peaceinwayofal1) October 16, 2020
People are concerned about the ban but not for the Quran that is laying closed in the house. These are the Muslims of today.

author: R Umaima Ahmed


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Trinidad & Tobago team reports ‘minimal to no risk’ of an oil spill from stranded Venezuelan tanker · Global Voices
Zico Cozier

The FSO (Floating Storage and Offloading Unit) Nabarima, the vessel in danger of sinking and creating a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Paria. Screenshot taken from a video uploaded by Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, the Trinidad and Tobago-based non-governmental organisation that raised the alarm about the situation.
This article was originally published on Cari-Bois News. An edited and updated version is republished here as part of a content sharing agreement with Global Voices.
The first non-Venezuelan-led assessment of the status of the FSO Nabarima, a Venezuelan oil tanker sinking in the Gulf of Paria in the Caribbean Sea, confirmed that the risk of an oil spill is minimal.
The assessment was conducted on October 20 by a team of experts from Trinidad and Tobago recommended by the country's Ministry of Energy and Industries. Trinidad and Tobago would potentially experience the worst effects should such an oil spill take place.
There have been regional and international concerns in the past months about the potential ecological disaster posed by the damaged vessel, which remains stranded in Venezuelan waters near Trinidad carrying approximately 1.3 million barrels of crude oil.
Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of Energy Franklin Khan said on October 22 that the report's findings “confirmed that the vessel is upright, it is stable and there is very little minimal if any risk of tilting or sinking.” The full report was due to be released on October 22 but prior to this, Khan said the conclusions were as follows:
The FSO Nabarima is upright and stable with no visible tilt and there is no imminent risk of tilting or sinking. There was no water egress visible on the vessel to the team, it was confirmed that during the incident when the engine room was flooded, as was reported in September, there was no mixing of oil and bilge water, the oil did not leak from the containment tank. This implies that the double hulls are intact and poses minimum risk of an oil spill at this time.
The team was reportedly satisfied with the vessel's ongoing maintenance programme and recommended a follow-up visit in a month.
On October 16, environmental activist Gary Aboud, of the Trinidad and Tobago-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS), conducted a clandestine visit to the vessel, showing that it was tilting precariously. This was two months after Aboud first sounded the alarm about the potential for a devastating oil spill to occur in the Gulf.
Trinidad and Tobago's government has since found itself grappling with difficult questions about how to respond to a crisis beyond its maritime border. Amery Browne, Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of Foreign and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Affairs, sought to provide clarity on the government's attempts to address the situation, as Aboud and other environmental activists have accused local officials of inaction and of toeing the line of the Venezuelan government:
There seemed to be an expectation in some quarters that the government, because of the concern, must act through some kind of illegal means. That simply is not possible.
Press releases from several Trinidad and Tobago government ministries over the past three months have deferred to Venezuelan talking points that the vessel is “stable” — a claim that FFOS deemed “propaganda.”
Browne insisted, however, that the government has taken the threat seriously from the very beginning, and that it immediately made a request via diplomatic channels to visit the vessel despite reassurances from the Venezuelan government that there was no cause for concern. He added that a visit had initially been approved for September 28 before suddenly being cancelled by Venezuelan authorities due to “circumstances beyond their control.” The new suggested date was October 20, at which point Browne said:
We immediately got back to them and we informed them that we would not wish to wait until October; we want to do an immediate fly-by or sail around of the vessel at least to be able to lay eyes on the situation, to get an idea of the tilt […] or any of the other parameters so that we know if this is an unfolding environmental emergency. Venezuela responded that they would not be able to facilitate that.
Aboud and other concerned citizens are questioning why this information had been kept out of the public domain until now.
Trinidad and Tobago shares a treaty with Venezuela on the delimitation of marine and submarine areas in the Gulf of Paria, which requires that both parties “inform each other about any indication of actual, imminent or potential pollution of a serious nature which occurs in the maritime frontier zone.”
Trinidad and Tobago, however, is among a small group of nations in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) states whose government has given little public consideration to signing the Escazú Agreement — a groundbreaking treaty that deepens the link between environmental protection and human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Ratifying the Escazú Agreement, which is one signature short of coming into effect, would help to guarantee the public’s right to information on environmental threats such as the one the FSO Nabarima poses.
Echoing the spirit of the Escazú Agreement, Aboud, in a video uploaded to Facebook October 20, says that given the potential for an oil spill to affect the entire Caribbean, the current crisis calls for a united regional response:
Five of the seven of the world’s marine turtles live in our Caribbean sea and each island has a tourism product that depends on whales, on dolphins, on fish, on crabs, on a clean and healthy sea.
He called for a binding agreement among all CARICOM members that would allow regional nations to pool information, resources and human capital to address shared threats.
Since Aboud’s visit to the damaged vessel, the United States Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago issued a statement in support of “immediate actions to bring the Nabarima up to international safety standards and avoid possible environmental harm” and making it clear that “activities to avert an ecological disaster” would not be in contravention of any sanctions imposed against Venezuela.
Recent international reports have stated that Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PVDSA), has been positioning a crude tanker to participate in the unloading of oil from the FSO Nabarima. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that PDVSA planned to offload some of the crude onboard via a ship-to-ship transfer.
Minister Khan confirmed that PDVSA began a ship-to-ship transfer of the crude to its Aframax ship, Icaro, but said that the Trinidad and Tobago report recommended that the transfer of oil from be done using a larger vessel, since the Icaro can only hold a quarter of the Nabarima’s 1.3 million barrel capacity.
Meanwhile, in a separate interview with the Trinidad Express, Browne credited “the strong concern and interest of the people of Trinidad and Tobago to the Nabarima situation” for helping to encourage the government to pursue solutions.

author: Zico Cozier


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From Belarus to Thailand, Hong Kong’s spirit of resistance is nurturing grassroots protests elsewhere · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Photo from activist media outlet Studio Incendo. Non-commercial use.
The following post, written by Shui-yin Sharon Yam, Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky, was originally published on Hong Kong Free Press on October 22, 2020. It is republished with the author's permission on Global Voices under a content partnership agreement.
Since the passing of the national security law, the streets of Hong Kong have been eerily calm. Large-scale marches and guerrilla-style street protests are no longer a weekly sight. Although some Western pundits and expats were quick to declare that Hong Kong and its pro-democracy movement is dead, not only does Hongkongers’ spirit of resistance live on, but it has taken on a transnational orientation as they advocate for protesters across the world — most recently in Belarus, where thousands have been protesting election results, and in Thailand, where there is growing dissatisfaction with the monarchy.
Since their own 2019 protests began, Hongkongers have experienced more than a year of heartbreak, trauma and violence inflicted by a government and police force that cannot be held accountable — but as grassroots uprisings spread across the world since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, their experience with resistance has given rise to a new wave of transnational solidarity. As Hongkongers watch protest footage abroad that echoes their own, they feel a visceral connection and kinship with activists facing similar obstacles.
Like Hong Kong's anti-extradition protests, these global grassroots movements are mostly decentralised and youth-led, and make use of digital technologies and guerrilla street tactics to challenge authoritarian governments. Most importantly, taking the lead from Hong Kong protesters who challenge Beijing’s governance, they also seek to dismantle longstanding systems of power and by doing so, uncover the state’s willingness to inflict violence on its people, squelch dissent and restore the status quo.
Common across all these movements are state regimes that monopolise power and are eager to invoke states of emergency and implement draconian laws to criminalise protesters. Mirroring some aspects of the Carrie Lam administration, the Thai government recently declared a state of emergency and implemented a ban on gatherings in response to ongoing protests against the monarchy and military rule.
Around the time that Beijing announced the national security law, the Duterte regime in the Philippines implemented a sweeping anti-terrorism law with similar chilling effects. The solidarity Hongkongers feel with movements abroad is therefore based on the shared struggle against authoritarian state governments and militarised police forces that do not hesitate to inflict bodily and emotional harm on its own citizens.
Given these similarities, journalists and commentators have written extensively about how the Hong Kong protests emboldened the Bruce Lee-inspired “Be water!” tactics around the world. Cautioning against a callous dismissal of the Hong Kong movement as a failure, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, an American historian of modern China, recently wrote:
The city’s latest struggles added significantly to the global repertoire of resistance.
The cross-movement influence between Hong Kong and elsewhere is a two-way street. While the 2019 Hong Kong protests have influenced organisational and protest tactics in anti-authoritarian movements abroad, the current wave of grassroots uprisings also prompts Hongkongers to develop a transnational understanding of grassroots activism and solidarity.
While Hongkongers have previously focused on lobbying powerful Western governments for support, they have since expanded their transnational advocacy to grassroots movements that challenge state regimes. It is an important shift, as this transnational advocacy – which has moved online — highlights how their own struggle is interlinked across movements, despite geographical distance and historical differences.
During the Hong Kong protests, people made effective use of digital technologies to circumvent surveillance, circulate information and advocate for their five demands.
Now, as the protests in Belarus and Thailand intensify, Hongkongers are once again making use of social media platforms to demonstrate transnational solidarity. In addition to retweeting posts from Belarusian and Thai protesters and journalists, Hong Kong Twitter users have also shared protest tactics and translated information about these protests into Chinese, in order to reach a broader audience.
In late September, a Hong Kong illustrator started an art campaign on Twitter, challenging Hongkongers to co-create a painted human chain connecting the two locales and movements. Under the hashtag #HK2Belarus, original artwork and photo collages demonstrate Hongkongers’ support for Belarusians as they challenge the Lukashenko regime:
?HK 2 Belarus Illustrated Human Chain ?
［ HKers Link + Draw With You ］
Any HKers want to do an art challenge to show solidarity to Belarusians from Sep 20-26？? pic.twitter.com/V642Q9r3Zg
— ? hk 2 belarus 插畫人鏈 ? illustrated human chain ? (@hk2belarus) September 20, 2020
Meanwhile, as the #MilkTeaAlliance morphed from a sarcastic Internet meme to a symbol of transnational anti-authoritarian struggles, Hong Kong netizens shared footage and messages from Thai protesters on Twitter to amplify their voices. Using the hashtags #StandWithThailand and #WhatIsHappeninginThailand, the Instagram platform @hkpostmanchannel collected over 300 messages of support from Hongkongers to Thai protesters.
While these actions are most visible on social media platforms where Hongkongers can protect their identity, they are not limited to digital spaces:
[Urgent: Petition to #StandWithThailand]
คำร้องเพื่อเปลี่ยนแปลง https://t.co/8jdiuAj8wH
We, Hongkongers, have faced endless political persecution in the year-long ongoing protest. The fight for democracy is a collective battle, and we stand with our fellows in #MilkTeaAlliance. pic.twitter.com/eSj6MlEVKx
— Nathan Law 羅冠聰 ? (@nathanlawkc) October 17, 2020
Prominent pro-democracy activists and lawmakers such as Joshua Wong, Ted Hui and Figo Chan held up a bilingual banner outside the Thai Consulate in Hong Kong to condemn violence against Thai protesters. Overnight, graffiti materialised on a traffic bridge in Tai Koo: “#StandWithThailand #Save12HKYouths.” Even more courageously, a representative from grassroots advocacy group Student Politicism made a public speech in Mong Kok, urging Hongkongers to support grassroots activists in Xinjiang, Belarus, and Thailand:
I hope we Hongkongers can expand our vision and support beyond our local struggle. When we were protesting, Thai people supported us not because they were obligated to. I hope that now when they are facing authoritarian suppression, we will support them too.
Echoing this sentiment, political commentator Kevin Yam reminded Hongkongers that while it is tempting to continuously highlight similarities between the Hong Kong and Thai protests, it is important to keep the focus on the struggles and courage of the Thai people.
These recent expressions of transnational solidarity emphasise mutual support with other protesters as co-strugglers against authoritarianism. This orientation decentres traditional power structures by connecting directly with other grassroots activists, instead of with state governments that are often complicit in oppression.
Protesters in Thailand and Belarus have responded in kind, chanting slogans and holding unfurled flags in solidarity with the Hong Kong movement that is no longer permitted under the national security law. As activists around the world challenge the status quo and strive to dismantle unjust political structures, Hongkongers’ new transnational orientation guarantees them a seat at the table as activists worldwide imagine and create new political futures.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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Myanmar 2020 election: ‘A critical moment in the consolidation of democratic transition’ · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Training of domestic election observers in 2018. Photo from the Twitter account of The Carter Center.
Myanmar’s election on November 8 is described by United States-based group The Carter Center as “a critical moment in the consolidation of Myanmar’s ongoing democratic transition.” The Carter Center is one of two international election observation missions accredited by Myanmar’s Union Election Commission (UEC).
Myanmar was governed by a military dictatorship for several decades, then transitioned into civilian rule in 2010. The 2008 Constitution, however, ensured that the military would continue to exercise political influence, including on the Parliament. The opposition National League for Democracy defeated the military-backed party in the historic 2015 general election.
The Carter Center released its preliminary assessment of Myanmar’s election process on October 13. It noted the challenges in holding an election during a pandemic and recognized the efforts of the UEC in keeping the process on track.
On the other hand, it also identified the electoral system’s “structural shortcomings”:
(…) structural shortcomings continue to undermine the democratic character of the process, including quotas for unelected military appointees in all legislative bodies, restrictive eligibility criteria for the presidency, inequalities in constituency populations resulting in unequal representation.
It also mentioned that the “discriminatory legal regulations for citizenship effectively disenfranchise several ethnic minorities, particularly the Rohingya.” Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as one of its ethnic groups.
The Carter Center’s observation mission, led by Sean Dunne, is composed of a core team of six experts and 24 long-term observers. Global Voices reached out to Dunne via email to learn more about their monitoring process in Myanmar.
Mong Palatino (MP): The Carter Center also monitored the 2015 election. How would you compare the electoral landscape during that year in relation to the present?
Sean Dunne (SD): The 2015 elections were really a watershed moment for Myanmar’s democratic transition with the opening of space for political competition and the peaceful transfer of power to the main opposition party. As is often the case with second round transitional elections, this election is likely to be more intensely contested among parties and candidates. This imposes more pressure on the election authorities to ensure a fair process in line with international principles for democratic elections.
MP: How do you plan to fulfill your mission given the pandemic situation?
SD: The Carter Center has taken a range of steps to maintain its observation efforts despite the pandemic. We were able to recruit and accredit Myanmar citizens to become our long-term election observers and have recruited foreign nationals locally and abroad to take on the short-term observer roles for the mission. We have made use of technology to assist in our virtual interviewing and engagement with stakeholders, conducting over 500 interviews so far with election and security officials, political parties and candidates, and civil society representatives.
MP: A recent news report mentioned the cancellation of elections in some townships because of security concerns. Can you comment on this?
SD: The constitution and election laws permit for the postponement of elections due to local insecurity and natural disasters. It was a recommendation of The Carter Center and other observation missions in 2015 that the criteria for these postponements be more transparent.
MP: What are some of the crucial electoral policies should the UEC undertake in the next few weeks to make the elections more free and fair?
SD: The process of elections must not only be fair but be seen to be fair. Transparency and frequent consultation with political parties, candidates and other stakeholders are crucial to the acceptance of the results. All aspects of the electoral process should be open to international and domestic observers to strengthen transparency.
MP: Do you have a message to members of the international community which are also monitoring Myanmar’s democratic transition?
SD: The second cycle of transitional elections are always vital to entrench democratic practices. These elections are an essential measure of progress. Post-election, ongoing democratic reforms need to be a priority, including adoption of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.


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President Buhari’s contempt for Nigerian youth-led #EndSARS movement · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Protesters at the #EndSARS protest in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo by Kaizenify October 13, 2020, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
When Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari addressed the nation on October 22, he was silent regarding the recent killings of at least 12 protesters at an #EndSARS rally in Lekki, Lagos.
Nigerian security forces had on October 20, at around 7 p.m. WAT, released fire on unarmed youth protesters in Lekki toll gate, Lagos.
Nigerian youth have staged peaceful nationwide protests since October 9, against police brutality inflicted by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad known as SARS.
Rather, President Buhari emphasized state power over the human rights demands of young Nigerian citizens against police brutality.
In his address, however, Buhari warned that the prompt disbarring of SARS should not be “misconstrued as a sign of weakness.” He further admonished protesters to “resist the temptation of being used by some subversive elements to cause chaos.” And failure to adhere to this warning “will amount to undermining national security and the law and order situation. Under no circumstances will this be tolerated,” Buhari stated.
Buhari also accused the international community of “rushing to judgement and making hasty pronouncements” without seeking official clarification.
The United Nations, United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Sweden condemned the government’s use of disproportionate force on unarmed protesters. Former US President Bill Clinton, former US Vice President Joe Biden, former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and the US Congressional Black Caucus also expressed strong disapproval of the Lekki incident.
Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Photo by Bayo Omoboriowo, 29 May 2015, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The president’s speech was anticlimactic after two tumultuous weeks of protests across the country. Nigerians anticipating a presidential address to restore calm, assuage frayed nerves, empathize with victims or reassure a nation on the verge of a precipice, were utterly disappointed.
Rather they got veiled threats, paternalistic admonitions and an evasion of the issues at stake.
Feyisitan Ijimakinwa, a researcher at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, writes that Buhari’s speech was highly anticipated because the president had “remained detached, unperturbed and silent” in the wake of “shooting of protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate.” However, it turned out to be “one of the worst and wrongest addresses by any Nigerian leader.” An address that revealed his contemptuous “perception of Nigerian youths. As far as President Buhari was concerned, the youths who were killed at Lekki did not count for anything,” Ijimakinwa said.
The words of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie now seem prophetic: In an op-ed published in the New York Times a day before the speech, she aptly sums up Buhari’s presidential contempt for citizens: “..there is the sense that Nigeria could very well burn to the ground while the president remains malevolently aloof. The president himself has often telegraphed a contemptuous self-righteousness, as though engaging fully with Nigerians is beneath him.”
Following the presidential address, the Feminist Coalition, one of the members of the #EndSARS collective, made a statement calling on “all young Nigerians to stay safe, stay home, and observe the mandated curfew” in various states.
Curfews were imposed in Lagos, Edo and Enugu states to quell violence that erupted after thugs hijacked the protests against police brutality.
The Feminist Coalition announced their decision to “henceforth stop all donation inflows for the #EndSARS peaceful protest.” They maintained that donations still within their custody will be channeled into “funding medical emergencies, legal aid for wrongfully detained citizens, and relief for victims of police brutality and families of the deceased.”
Despite what comes after this, young Nigerians who organised the protests will always be remembered, in the words of Adichie, as that “disaffected generation with the courage to act. Their bravery is inspiring. They speak to hope and to the possibility of what Nigeria could become.”


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Venezuelan tanker deemed ‘stable’, but Trinidad & Tobago recommends hastening the transfer of oil · Global Voices
Zico Cozier

The FSO (Floating Storage and Offloading Unit) Nabarima, the vessel in danger of sinking and creating a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Paria. Screenshot taken from a video uploaded to YouTube by Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS), the Trinidad and Tobago-based nongovernmental organisation that raised the alarm about the situation.
This article was originally published on Cari-Bois News. An edited and updated version is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices.
A three-person team sent by the Trinidad and Tobago government to inspect the Venezuelan-owned FSO Nabarima, a floating storage and offloading unit containing approximately 1.3 million barrels of crude oil that was leaning to one side in the Gulf of Paria, has determined the vessel to be in stable condition, with no tilt, list, or water ingress, and therefore at “minimal risk” of an oil spill.
However, Franklin Khan, the twin-island nation's energy minister, conceded at a press conference on October 22, that the team — which spent approximately three-and-a-half hours on board the vessel — was not allowed to undertake an in-depth technical assessment:
We weren’t allowed to go with instruments as though we are regulators in the industry. We were making a trip that was coordinated by Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was an international trip from one government to another and we were allowed to observe and take notes to ascertain the veracity of what they have been telling us.
After a guided tour of the FSO Nabarima, the team reported that rooms for the engine, generator, boiler, machine control, tank control as well as the main deck, pumps, bilge and other critical areas within the vessel “seemed to have been fine.”
The tanker, which is currently undergoing maintenance work, has been operating in the Gulf of Paria, located between Trinidad and Venezuela's east coast, for a decade, storing oil procured from the Corocoro Field through a joint venture between Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PVDSA) and the Italian energy multinational Eni.
Meanwhile, the Trinidad and Tobago government is recommending that Venezuela find a way to speed up the process of evacuating the crude oil aboard the tanker in order to reduce the likelihood of a spill, which environmentalists say would be disastrous for both marine ecosystems and livelihoods.
The transfer of the crude oil, which is currently underway, could take up to 35 days to complete, as it entails pumping the 1.3 million barrels’ worth of oil from the FSO Nabarima to a barge that will have to make several trips since it can only carry 30,000 barrels at a time. The barge then transfers the oil to another tanker, the Icaro, which has a loading capacity of 300,000 barrels.
“The extended period for the offload in itself poses a slight risk, although the operation is deemed to be safe,” Khan explained. Had a larger vessel been handling the ship-to-ship transfer, he surmised, the operation could have been complete in a little as two days.
Concerns about the integrity of the vessel came to public attention when the Trinidad and Tobago-based nongovernmental organisation, Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS), alerted the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries (MEEI) via correspondence on August 24 (and the general public via social media posts) of the presence of the tanker “located within Venezuelan waters, with a total capacity of 1.3 million barrels which was allegedly tilted and at risk of capsizing.”
Refuting accusations about the Venezuelan government's lack of transparency in the matter, Khan said that the official communications from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's administration were forthright about two “unwanted events” that occurred in early September.
The first was the “loss of stability with a negative trim of 3.5 meters,” which caused the eight-degree tilt of the vessel seen in photographs shared on social media, and “a seven-degree list to the starboard side due to failure of the ballast system.”
The second “unwanted event” was water entering the bilge in the fourth deck of the engine room, due to valve failure associated with the bottom suction and emergency bilge draining system. The flooding of the engine room then led to the failure of “a number of electrical details.” Khan said both these issues have since been rectified.
Contributing to the precarious situation are the sanctions that American President Donald Trump imposed on Venezuela in 2019, which made it difficult for Venezuela to sell the crude stored onboard the ship.
According to former US National Security Adviser John Bolton, the move was designed to force countries and companies to choose between doing business with the United States or Venezuela, with the understanding that new sanctions could be imposed on anyone who supported the Maduro administration.
Minister Khan was careful to state that Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago enjoy a “friendly relationship,” and reminded nationals that when the now-defunct Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (Petrotrin) suffered a major oil spill in 2016, Venezuela — which was severely affected because of its close proximity — offered to assist in clean-up operations pro bono.
Although a treaty on the delimitation of marine and submarine areas exists between the two countries and states that an oil spill contingency plan can be invoked by either party if they perceive a viable threat to the environment, Minister Khan said that Trinidad and Tobago currently “had no technical basis” to invoke the plan.
Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Amery Browne, who also attended the press conference, stated that much of what has been done to address the issue has taken place behind the scenes:
A lot of diplomatic activity […] is not done in the full glare of the public and there is often use of more quiet channels to get our objective achieved and to a large extent, the objective has been achieved.
However, while Trinidadian newspaper columnist B.C. Pires acknowledged that the issue of the tanker “is, strictly legally speaking, a Venezuelan problem, and only Venezuela is legally permitted to attempt to solve it”, he added that if the oil spills, “we will find out there is no such thing as ‘Venezuelan’ waters in an ocean, only strict Venezuelan legal responsibility for an ecological disaster far worse than a century of hurricane seasons added together.”
Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, meanwhile, put out a statement that thanked the government for its efforts thus far but made it clear that it felt the bilateral agreement between the two countries had failed and that there was still high-level risk involved. It also requested video evidence that the vessel was “stable,” since it claims “misleading and doctored pictures have in the past spread propaganda.”
Video footage of the visit subsequently provided by the Venezuelan government shows an upright vessel, although the report from Trinidad and Tobago's TV6 news appears to have mixed in shots taken from the video provided by FFOS.


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Hong Kong teachers self-censor as authorities target classrooms · Global Voices
The Stand News

Image from the Stand News. Used with permission.
This is the third installment of a story, originally published in Chinese, on The Stand News. It was translated into English by Global Voices and will be published here in five parts with permission. Read parts one, two, and three.
Article 9 of Hong Kong's national security law (NSL) requires the government to take the necessary measures to strengthen public communication, guidance, supervision, and management in schools, social organizations, the media, and the internet.
As school-age youth was one of the most active social groups in last year’s anti-extradition protests, authorities consider it key to control classrooms.
Soon after the NSL was enacted in July, Hong Kong's Education Bureau revised elementary schools’ textbooks to remove the concepts of “civil disobedience” and “separation of powers.” It has also handed down guidelines for school administrators to educate students on national security, stressing that it is the school's responsibility to strengthen students’ “sense of national identity.”
To ensure teachers do not deviate from the curriculum, the city’s security secretary John Lee Ka-chiu said that the authorities would tighten school management and remove “bad apples,” referring to teachers that allegedly engage in professional misconduct. The term “bad apples” was also used by Carrie Lam in early October, in reference to a teacher who was permanently suspended after developing a worksheet discussing Hong Kong's independence.
Between June 2019 and August 2020, the Education Bureau received 247 complaints about teachers’ expressions or presentations of the political events taking place in Hong Kong; about 131 cases were considered to have merit and the Bureau will follow up with actions accordingly. Thus far, the Bureau has also given a few dozen teachers written and verbal warnings, which will be marked in the teachers’ employment record.
In addition to institutional measures, Beijing also mobilized its loyalists to help with the purge. Former Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying has urged the public to file complaints about teachers using 803 Action Fund, an online platform he founded that offers rewards to those who provide information facilitating the arrest and prosecution of targeted pro-democracy figures. Since August 2019, the fund stated that it would offer a reward of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars [approximately 12,903 United States dollars] to those who provide information about teachers’ misconduct.
On Facebook, Leung recently posted a list of 18 teachers who were arrested for protest activities and charged with rioting, arson, assaulting police officers, possession of weapons, criminal damage, unlawful assembly, and more. The information on the list includes their names, ages, job titles, the schools where they teach, and the charges made against them. He vowed to expose more names and details of anti-government teachers via the 803 Action Fund.
In May, pro-Beijing lawmaker Julius Ho launched a similar initiative called Save the Children. He claimed that the group had recruited 300 volunteers to expose “unprofessional” practices in the education sector, and that its investigators would be collecting worksheets and recording classes. By June, Ho said that the group had compiled more than 20 cases within a single month.
This month, the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions set up a hotline for parents to file complaints against teachers’ “misconduct.” The definition of unprofessional practice or misconduct, according to the Federation, ranges from a signature in an anti-government petition, to worksheets deemed inappropriate or social media posts that express personal views on current affairs.
Brian (fake name) is a secondary school Chinese language teacher. He would, in the past, post articles under his real name on online platforms, but recently deleted a published post. In the past two years, he has received three to four complaints because of his online activity. “The mere mentioning of ‘police’ without any intent to insult them would bring you complaints,” he told The Stand News.
One of the complaints anonymously filed against him at school, Brian says, was about the fact that he told a student, “Good to see you back home safe” (返屋企，冇事就好) after the latter left a protest site. The Education Bureau, he added, demanded a written explanation for allegedly implying that “going back home after participating in a protest forbidden by the government is good.”
The complaint has gone through three rounds of written exchanges thus far. Brian was required to back up his explanation with testimonies from colleagues, students, and their parents. “The whole process is to tell the education sector that you are targeted and to make you afraid,” he said.
In January, the Hong Kong Education Bureau started pressuring school administrators to keep politics away from campuses. With the announcement of the national security law in May, the pressure escalated.
This was evidenced by a landmark case in June, in which a secondary school teacher was fired for allowing students to play the popular protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” for a music examination.
That same month, a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union revealed the extent of the political control: Among the 1,185 respondents, all of whom work in the education sector, 84.1 percent said that the government had exercised “great pressure” on the sector, while 91.8 percent believed that current developments would have a negative impact on the future of education.
Although 91.1 percent of respondents said they disagreed with the idea that teachers should not express political views on social media, 64.6 percent also said they had reduced their social media activity, with some deciding to close their accounts altogether. Meanwhile, 59.1 percent began avoiding participating in authorized protests and assemblies.
Moreover, 78.8 percent of the respondents were worried that they would receive complaints because of their political views. One respondent wrote in the survey that one student’s parents filed a complaint simply because he wore a black mask in class.
The pro-democracy sector compares such hunting for “bad apples” to the Cultural Revolution-style political purges.

author: The Stand News


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How Facebook derailed Nigeria’s #EndSARS movement · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, during a visit to Kenya. Image by Afromusing, September 1, 2016 (CC BY 2.0).
As Nigerian security forces gunned down youth protesters on October 20, during #EndSARS rallies to end police brutality, social media posts actively sharing the news on Facebook and Instagram were falsely flagged as “fake news.”
For over two weeks, #EndSARS protests were held in many Nigerian cities and communities in the diaspora. SARS, the Special Anti Robbery Squad of the Nigerian police notorious for acting outside the law, has, over the years, arrested, tortured and killed citizens, particularly young Nigerians.
Let this video reignite your anger, let it spur you on. We started something amazing that we can’t stop, we are the generation that will bring change inshallah #EndSARS
Filmed & Edited by @BayoBrahms pic.twitter.com/n447icKTtP
— 49th Street #EndSARS (@The49thSt) October 25, 2020
Nigerian Facebook and Instagram users who tried sharing pictures or videos about the killing of #EndSARS Lekki toll gate protesters, like this blood-drenched Nigerian flag, got this response: “Fact-checkers say at least one photo or video in this post contains false information.”
Facebook works with independent third parties to review and rate the accuracy of stories. The fact-checking of Nigerian content was outsourced by the tech company to Africa Check, AFP-Hub and Dubawa.
On October 22, Instagram Communication tweeted an apology for “incorrectly flagging content in support of #EndSARS, and marking posts as false.”
Global Voices’ request for comment on the said censorship of #EndSARS content — made via direct message and tweet on October 22, to the verified Twitter handle of Andy Stone, Facebook’s policy communications director —  was neither acknowledged nor replied.
Since 2008, Global Voices activists from Afghanistan to Kazakhstan, Bulgaria to Macedonia, the Philippines to Singapore, Brazil to Venezuela, Egypt to Lebanon, Bangladesh to India, Ethiopia to Tanzania, have documented their experiences regarding “free speech, censorship and human rights on the world’s largest social network.”
Two weeks ago, Facebook was embroiled in a controversy of fueling hate speech in India. In 2018, Brazil’s largest newspaper quit Facebook, after accusing the media of harboring fake news. In July 2016, Facebook removed a post that criticized the Singaporean police. In 2011, Facebook shut down the account of a blogger after “she published a series of posts on crime in Honduras.” And on the evening of November 25, 2010, Facebook disabled the “We Are All Khaled Said” page. Khaled Said a 28-year-old Egyptian man, was beaten to death in Alexandria by two police officers. Facebook eventually restored the page after activists called them out on Twitter.
This highlights Facebook’s historical complicity in censoring the voices of human rights activists. It has happened “again and again for the past decade, often with no explanation from the company,” asserts Ellery Roberts Biddle, journalist, technology expert and editorial director of Ranking Digital Rights via email to Global Voices.
Protesters at the #EndSARS protest in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo by Kaizenify via Wikimedia (CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Facebook’s censorship of #EndSARS content is “is all too common,” asserts Jillian C. York, American activist and director of international freedom of expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
York informed Global Voices via Twitter Direct Message that “Instagram didn't just make a ‘mistake’ here.” Rather, this was a consequence of “their poorly-developed content moderation and flagging systems — not a bug,” York emphasized.
Biddle blamed Facebook for its sparse investment in content moderation:
Investigations by journalists and leaks from inside the company demonstrate that Facebook does not put adequate financial or human resources towards its content moderation processes.
The few exceptions to this deficient moderation by Facebook is “in countries like Germany, where it is strictly regulated, but it's reasonable to suspect (and we don't know, because of Facebook's lack of transparency) that Facebook puts far fewer resources toward moderation of content in Nigeria, in spite of the fact that Nigeria is a much larger country,” wrote Biddle via email to Global Voices.
Dr. Qemal Affagnon, West Africa’s regional coordinator at Internet Sans Frontières, told Global Voices via email that it is an ironic “form of arrogance” for Facebook to harvest “metadata from the pictures shared by Nigerians” while “penalizing” their freedom of expression.
The metadata of Nigerians while constituting a breach in privacy makes the “business profitable” for the American tech company. Affagnon explains further that “Facebook relies on metadata from photos such as the date, time and location of the mobile devices that are used to take photos. These metadata are extremely important for profiling people (where are you, who you are with, what type of car is behind you for example) — precious information that advertisers are interested in.”
The censorship comes as the technology giant is seeking entry into the Nigerian market. Four years ago, in September 2016, Lagos, Nigeria, was Mark Zuckerberg's first destination during his trip to Africa. In an obvious testament to Nigeria’s booming tech ecosystem, Facebook recently announced that it will be opening its second Africa office in Lagos, by the second half of 2021.
Affagnon said that this makes the censoring of #EndSARS content, both “disturbing and difficult to understand,” considering the tech company’s inroads into the Nigerian market. However, Facebook has shown, Affagnon asserts, “that it has no respect for the diversity of point of view which is dangerous for democracy” and “violates Nigerian internet users’ rights while showing a disgusting form of authoritarianism.”
think about this: Facebook actively helped the Nigerian government to claim that no killings happened by labelling and removing video/photo/livestream posts of #EndSARS protests (on Instagram too). after they did that they issue apology and keep it moving. after silencing stories
— T. (@TefoMohapi) October 23, 2020
The “incorrect flagging” of #EndSARS content by Facebook and Instagram contributed to state-sponsored social media obfuscation of the shooting of protesters in Lekki toll gate, Lagos. Both the Lagos State government and the Nigerian Army have either denied the fatalities recorded or described the shootings as fake news, despite ample evidence from journalists and human rights groups like Amnesty International.
Facebook has never been “fully transparent with the public about how and why it might censor a hashtag like this [#EndSARS],” Biddle said. Thus, the need for “a full audit and overhaul of their systems, and a commitment to transparency, user notice, and appeals in every case,” noted York.


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Internet throttling, SMS blocking in days leading up to election in Tanzania · Global Voices
GV Sub-Saharan Africa

Online platform feature restrictions by internet service providers in Tanzania, October 27, 2020. Photo via NetBlocks.org.
Back in August, digital rights activists speculated that Tanzania may restrict internet services  — especially popular social media platforms — ahead of the general elections scheduled for October 28.
Sure enough, with just 24 hours to go before election day, internet users in Tanzania and on the semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar, have reported limited access to internet services including social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.
On election eve, Netblocks confirmed the intentional slowing down of the internet known as “throttling”:
Confirmed: Widespread disruption to social media registered across #Tanzania on eve of elections; high impact to Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and Google services on Vodacom, Airtel, Tigo, Halotel and Zantel; incident ongoing ? #TanzaniaElections2020
? https://t.co/LEIpXAlEhf pic.twitter.com/2WRsPSZ2VU
— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) October 27, 2020
The limited services left millions without reliable internet to communicate with friends and family, and grappling to secure virtual private networks (VPNs) to access the internet:
Internet restrictions in #Zanzibar #Tanzania are real. Numerous friends, colleagues, contacts currently unable to reply to my messages and finding alternatives through people with functioning vpns to communicate. #ZanzibarLivesMatter #ZanzibarLivesMatters
— Franziska Fay (@Franziska_Fay) October 27, 2020
Tuno Nassoro implored TCRA not to switch off the internet:
Internet imeanza kusumbua karibu wiki sasa please @TCRA_Tz tunaomba msituzimie tuna mawasiliano mengi muhimu na kuna maisha mengine yanafuata baada ya kesho. @ZainaFoundation.#KeepItOnTz
— Tunu Nassoro (@tunu_nassoro) October 27, 2020
The internet has started to become troublesome for close to a week now. Please @TCRA_TZ we beg you, do not switch off the internet. We have many important communications and there is another life that follows after tomorrow.
Twitter Public Policy tweeted its statement on the matter:
Ahead of tomorrow's election in #Tanzania, we're seeing some blocking and throttling of Twitter. #TanzaniaDecides2020
Internet shutdowns are hugely harmful, and violate basic human rights and the principles of the #OpenInternet #KeepItOn https://t.co/Q2SJfsFUiD
— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) October 27, 2020
According to Paradigm Initiative, the Tanzanian government does not have the authority to fully shut down the internet. But the Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations, 2020, “gives the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) power to order service providers to block or filter content if the TCRA deems such content is prohibited,” according to human rights lawyer Daniel Marari.
On October 21, the TCRA instructed telecommunications companies to “suspend bulk SMS and bulk voice calls” for a two-week period that coincides with the general election, allegedly censoring keywords and names of certain opposition candidates:
#Tanzania orders telecoms to temporarily suspend bulk SMS and bulk voice calls from Oct 24 to Nov 11, 2020 ahead of Oct 28 general elections. There are reports that names of opposition leaders; Tundu Lissu, Maalim Saif can't go through. #TanzaniaElections2020 #TanzaniaDecides pic.twitter.com/NoVoISi1dt
— The Observer (@observerug) October 26, 2020
The letter, signed by Eng Jame Kilaba, the TCRA's director-general, said that the “continuation of services during the electoral period is likely going to jeopardize the security and safety of the country,” according to The Observer.
Access Now called this a “severe breach of human rights”:
BREAKING: Tanzania's government has ordered telcos to block bulk SMS messages and filter particular content relating to the presidential election.
The election is this Wednesday.
People will not be able to communicate. This is a severe breach of human rights. #KeepitOn
— Access Now (@accessnow) October 24, 2020
Ahead of general elections tomorrow, the Zaina Foundation has monitored the potential for an internet shutdown in Tanzania since April, and have launched a Twitter campaign called #KeepItOnTz.
The move to limit internet services in Tanzania is part of a larger trend across Africa where governments choose to interfere with users’ rights to freedom of expression — particularly during events of major political significance.

author: GV Sub-Saharan Africa


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More than one million voters in Myanmar disenfranchised after government cancels elections in conflict areas · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A campaign rally in Myanmar. Photo by Radio Free Asia. Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. https://www.rfa.org.
An estimated 1.2 million voters will be unable to vote in the November 8 national elections in Myanmar after the Union Election Commission (UEC) cancelled polling in 56 townships citing security risks. Most of the affected areas are in Arakan State (formally known as Rakhine) but elections were also cancelled in some parts of Shan and Kachin States.
In Arakan, elections are wholly cancelled in nine townships and partially in some wards and village-tracts in four townships.
Myanmar has more than 100 ethnic groups with some of these waging an armed struggle for self-determination. The UEC said the armed conflict in Arakan and other communities listed in the order would make it impossible to hold a free and fair election, even if voting will take place in other townships which are also caught in the crossfire of armed hostilities.
Since June 2019, internet networks have been restricted in several townships of Arakan because of military clashes, which deprived the local population of vital information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, activists are saying they are being disenfranchised as well.
Activists and some analysts described the UEC order as “mass disenfranchisement of ethnic voters” and “strangulation of political space”.
UEC must reconsider the order released on Oct 16 to cancel 56 townships to hold elections in Myanmar.
UEC must consult with stakeholders from the areas & election monitoring groups.
UEC must urge Myanmar Govt to declare nation-wide ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/f0uL3huBdd
— Thinzar Shunlei Yi (@thinzashunleiyi) October 21, 2020
And its so unacceptable with the sole reason for the cancellations as such “tendency to not b able to hold free & fair election”. Where r specific justifications? Who did u consult with??
This clearly condemned the whole electoral process. https://t.co/qOEuRcCOG4
— Thinzar Shunlei Yi (@thinzashunleiyi) October 16, 2020
Ethnic parties questioned the basis of the order and impartiality of UEC. U Thae Rae, secretary of the Kayah State Democratic Party, pointed out the inconsistency of the UEC:
…there will be elections in some areas where fighting is going on. So, it seems like the areas where ethnic people are strong and likely to win have been chosen for cancelling elections. There are suspicions over whether the government is trying to reduce ethnic parties’ power. That is why we have to oppose the announcement of the UEC.
Myo Kyaw, secretary of the Arakan League for Democracy echoed a similar point:
There is no fighting in Pauktaw Township. I don’t understand why the general election is not being held ‘for security reasons’ in some areas where there is no fighting. Cancellation of the voting is detrimental to the people in the areas where there is no armed conflict.
San Hla, the village headman for Seik Phoo village from Nawngkio Township insisted that there’s no reason to cancel the elections in their peaceful town:
I don’t understand why they canceled the election in our region. There’s no conflict in our area. There isn’t a problem with government staff. And there aren’t any COVID-19 cases. Our area is very peaceful.
Sai Kyaw Nyunt, Secretary-1 of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy warned that ethnic parties will lose seats in the parliament:
Our party will lose three candidates due to exclusions. It is a great loss to the public if there are no candidates who will represent them.
Some analysts said the UEC order benefits the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) since the cancelled elections are in areas where majority of voters in the 2015 elections chose candidates belonging to ethnic parties.
The NLD denied that it influenced the decision of the UEC.
Progressive Voice, a research and advocacy group, highlighted the role of the powerful military in creating the state of insecurity in several ethnic communities.
While the situation of armed conflict is certainly serious in Rakhine State and other ethnic states in Myanmar, what the UEC does not mention is that it is the military offensives and militarization of the Myanmar military that creates this insecurity cited.
Myanmar was under military dictatorship until it transitioned into civilian democratic rule in 2010. However, the 2008 constitution has guaranteed that the military will retain seats in the parliament and other layers of the bureaucracy.