WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, Umanita Nova #24/25 - Censorship and Revolt on the Roof of the World. Protests in Nepal and Social Media (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 When the Nepalese government ordered the blocking of 26 (practically

all...) social media sites in early September, justifying its decision
because their managers had failed to respond to a request to "register"
made at the end of August, the news barely reached the insiders.
Although some local articles had noted that registration would entail
supervision or control over published content, protests erupted in
cities around the capital, culminating in full-blown urban riots. Around
fifty people died, the Parliament building was set ablaze, large hotels
and the homes of political figures were torched, and more than ten
thousand inmates escaped from prison-all events often documented with
photos and videos. Some might believe that it was all simply the
expression of a generational revolt and that young Nepalese men and
women were taking social media too seriously. In fact, as people better
informed about the country's political and social situation have
written, people also took to the streets to protest against the
government, which they accuse of being in the hands of a corrupt elite.
After a week of revolt, the ban on social media was lifted, the Prime
Minister resigned, the government fell, and new elections were called.

Events like this confirm that the relationship between the Internet and
politics operates according to well-known mechanisms and that the
dispute between the two sides concerns control of electronic
communication. When the companies that own the platforms, which are
usually of enormous size and resources, resist government injunctions,
they do so not because they are champions of freedom of communication,
but primarily to prevent a decline in the flow of profits they collect
daily from every post, image, comment, or video published on their
sites. These are skirmishes, rather than wars, that have been going on
practically forever: in fact, it's impossible to list all the cases over
the years in which a government has blocked-for varying lengths of
time-its citizens' access to one or more social media. Some countries
have adopted the strategy of encouraging the creation of "national"
platforms that often have a significant user base and are-in most
cases-unknown or virtually unknown outside their borders. This is the
case, for example, in Russia with VK-Vkontakte, a social network
estimated to have around 500 million users. Or in China, where the
Xiaohongshu (RED) and Douyin platforms predominate, which, together with
others, are said to have over a billion users. Although, in the latter
case, it should be remembered that the social media we know here in
Europe are banned behind the Great Wall. Creating "autonomous" social
communication systems has solved some of the problems faced by
governments, which are thus freed from having to deal with companies
with their capital and headquarters abroad, but more conveniently with
entrepreneurs and companies subject to local laws.

The existing situation, briefly summarized above, has created a certain
balance over the years, which, however, is sometimes disrupted, as in
the case of Nepal. A further element of imbalance has been, in recent
times, the exponential growth in the use of applications such as
WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal (to name just the most well-known), which
share many of the features of social media and are often used as such.
This has, in part, altered the existing balance, introducing a series of
new issues that pose a challenge to anyone aiming to continuously and
completely monitor people's communications.

In this context of periodic skirmishes, ongoing legislative proposals
are emerging. The European Community is among the most active
institutions in this field, aiming to almost completely eliminate the
possibility of maintaining a modicum of anonymity and therefore privacy
when connecting and communicating online. Lacking the courage to impose
any kind of generalized censorship, politicians across political parties
and factions use every pretext to advance proposals that nevertheless
point in that direction. One of the latest, in chronological order, is
the ban on connecting to an "adult" website without providing certain
proof of the requester's age. To this end, an application is being
tested in Italy that would securely certify that anyone wishing to
connect to a prohibited website is of legal age. Proposals like this
are, among other things, concrete proof that previous solutions, even
very recent ones-such as parental control over children's cell
phones-have not worked.

Meanwhile, the first cell phone-free school year began in Italy a few
days ago.

Pepsy

https://umanitanova.org/censura-e-rivolta-sul-tetto-del-mondo-proteste-in-nepal-e-social-media/
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