THE internet that was an affair, in many cases, of something to boast of for enterprises and individuals in the late 1990s when it was introduced in Bangladesh has no longer been so. It has now become an essential medium of communications that has profusely influenced the way of life. The internet has become an integral part of business. It runs the banking system, in internal transaction and in keeping automated teller machines functional. It is an important tool of education, which was greatly felt amidst and in the wake of the Covid outbreak in early 2020. It has, that time, bolstered electronic commerce. It has by now been a simple but efficiently used tool of financial services. Overall, it has opened new horizon in how to freely flow information. Not just for enterprises and institutional entities but for all individuals. People appear to be completely at a loss in the absence of net connectivity.
And, the absence of net connectivity is now here amongst us. As the movement of students for reforms in civil service job reservations were in the thick of it, the government, which has always boasted of an increased number of mobile users, has suspended mobile internet services, as reported, because of 鈥榠nstability surrounding the student protests.鈥� The 4G network that provides the mobile internet connectivity went off on July 16. Only the old 2G network could be used since then although for regular voice calls, which often dropped, disrupting communications. The problem that was forthcoming could not be felt to the fullest by then as regular broadband services were still running. With wi-fi running on routers, businesses, offices and even homes could do their internet chores.
The problem came to be greatly felt when broadband internet services went off in the evening of July 18. Apparently, the disruption in the services resulted from a fire that the allegedly protesters seeking reforms in civil service job reservations set to a building that houses the operations centres of several international internet gateway exchanges, data centres and interconnection exchanges. A situation like this has set the nation backward as in the pre-internet days, with no access to information and applications that people have by now become indispensably habituated to. The situation has not only blocked people鈥檚 access to information and harmed the free flow of information but has also essentially denied people their right to information. This is nothing short of the suppression of people鈥檚 democratic rights.
All this are apparently meant to contain, as the government says, the protests from flaring up further. But the suspension of internet services could not arrest the train of death and the violence, which kept increasing. The government employed the ruling Awami League鈥檚 student wing Chhatra League and youth front Juba League and deployed the police and Border Guard Bangladesh personnel to quell the protests. And, the attacks kept leaving people, mostly students, dead, even with no internet services. The government鈥檚 claim, therefore, appears an excuse.
Media reported the death of at least six on July 16 when mobile internet services were taken off. The number of death increased to, at least, 38, as media reports show, on July 18 when broadband internet services were taken off. The figure almost doubled to 67 on July 19. The increasing figures suggest that suspension of internet services was not meant to resolve the problem but to stop the flow of information. The suspension of internet services did not work the way the government said it would do. And, protests kept flaring up, forcing the government to deploy the Border Guard of Bangladesh on July 16 initially in five cities and town and strengthen the deployment of border guards later and, then, the army in aid of civil administration midnight past July 19 along with the imposition of curfew.
Clashes continued to take place in some pockets sporadically even on July 20. The situation, therefore, comes to question the government鈥檚 taking off internet services as a means to contain violence in the protests. Both the violence and the number of death increased. The absence of internet services only helped the government to keep citizens in the dark about what was, and is, going around. It has also stopped the media from effectively and accurately reporting what was, and is, going around. Having the internet services functional, it could have at least stopped the spread of misinformation, disinformation, speculations and rumours, which could have helped both people and the government to stay on the right track.
It is the free flow of information and people鈥檚 right to information that become the first casualty of most such happenings. But in the case at hand, they certainly did, to the parochial interest of the government, perhaps, and to the disadvantage of people at large. The government must realise that internet services are not only for scrolling down social media walls and play games online. The services are also meant for ensuring the free flow of information that helps society to stand corrected.
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Abu Jar M Akkas is deputy editor at 抖阴精品.
