Kill Switch

Over the course of this podcast series, we have taken a look at the troubling rise of government-created internet shutdowns. We heard activists, journalists, startup founders, and technology experts from around the world tell their stories.

Today we are wrapping up this series with our sixth and final episode in which we look towards the future. Will internet shutdowns continue to spread to even more countries across the world, or can we do something to stop it? Will shutdowns become a new international norm, or will it be universally condemned as an emerging form of human rights violation?

Thank you for joining us throughout this series, and helping in the fight to #KeepItOn. You can learn more about our work at www.accessnow.org.

This episode features interviews with Julie Owono, Internet Sans Frontières, Mohammed Sharief, Zain Sudan, Derek Barnabas Laryea, Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications and Laura O’Brien, Access Now. 

Hosted by Felicia Anthonia. Produced by Access Now, the #KeepItOn coalition, and Volume. Funding support from Internews. Production assistance by internet teapot. Music by Oman Morí.

In response to the recent internet shutdown in Belarus, more than 50 human rights organizations, including Access Now, signed an open letter condemning Belarus' actions.  The letter cites a number of international articles and resolutions from the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations, and others in support of its central argument. As the letter’s opening lines read: “Such disruptions are impermissible under international human rights law”.

This is the argument that we are making in this episode of Kill Switch as well. We talk to a journalist, an activist, and a human rights researcher about the various ways in which internet shutdowns and human rights violations intersect.

This episode features interviews with Fisseha Tekle from Amnesty International, Yvonne Ng from Witness, and Tom Gardner from The Economist.

Hosted by Felicia Anthonia. Produced by Access Now, the #KeepItOn coalition, and Volume. Funding support from Internews. Production assistance by internet teapot. Music by Oman Morí.

In the fourth episode of Kill Switch, we deep dive into the technical side of internet shutdowns, and provide you with some tools to help circumvent government tactics that prevent people from getting online.

We hear from a digital security helpline expert about setting up private Virtual Private Networks; get an introduction to the world’s largest repository of network disruption data; find out what’s been going on in Venezuela; and learn more about the frighteningly sophisticated internet security of Iran. 

This episode features interviews with Maria Xynou from Open Observatory of Network Interference, Hassen Selmi from Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline, Andrés Azpúrua from Venezuela Inteligente and Venezuala Sin Filtro and Amir Rashidi.

Hosted by Felicia Anthonia. Produced by Access Now, the #KeepItOn coalition, and Volume. Funding support from Internews. Production assistance by internet teapot. Music by Oman Morí.

In the third episode of Kill Switch, we take a look at what it is like to live through an internet shutdown. We talk to people about how these shutdowns impact their lives in small and unexpected manners - as well as in profound life-changing ways.

We hear from a startup founder in Cameroon’s ‘Silicon Mountain’ tech-hub whose business had to survive a shutdown of over 200 days; receive covert voice-note messages from a Rohingya refugee in the worlds largest refugee camp; and find out how shutdowns affect healthcare workers fighting against COVID-19 as well as journalists.

This episode features interviews with Ro Sawyeddollah from Cox’s Bazar Refugee Camp, Mambe Churchill Nanje, founder of Njorku, Devdutta Mukhopadhyay from the Internet Freedom Foundation and Ruth Gbatoe from the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding.

Hosted by Felicia Anthonia. Produced by Access Now, the #KeepItOn coalition, and Volume. Funding support from Internews. Production assistance by internet teapot. Music by Oman Morí.

In the second episode of Kill Switch, we take a look at what happens when you decide to take your government, president, or even your telecom service provider, to court in a desperate effort to get an internet shutdown stopped.

We hear about a daring court case in which a Sudanese lawyer fought to get his personal mobile internet connection reinstated after the bloody massacre that took place in Khartoum in 2019. We also hear how the president of Indonesia lost a legal battle against digital rights activists, as well as how the government of Cameroon tried to intimidate a judge who was trying to get a regional internet shutdown lifted. 

This episode features interviews with Shahad Azim, Natalia Krapiva from Access Now (www.accessnow.org) and Damar Juniarto from SAFENet (https://id.safenet.or.id/).

Hosted by Felicia Anthonia. Produced by Access Now, the #KeepItOn coalition, and Volume. Funding support from Internews. Production assistance by internet teapot. Music by Oman Morí.

The first episode of Kill Switch comes to you just as RightsCon 2020 kicks off - the world’s leading event on human rights in the digital age.

In this inaugural episode, we take a look at what exactly internet shutdowns, slow-downs, and social media blocks are. We also delve into the reasons behind the troubling rise in government-mandated internet shutdowns around the world in recent years.

Throughout the episode, we talk to experts and activists from around the world about recent, and currently ongoing, internet shutdowns - from the shutdown in Ethiopia that started in June 2020, to the shutdown that has been taking place since 2016 in the tribal regions of Pakistan. 

This episode features interviews with Berhan Taye from Access Now (www.accessnow.org), Mishi Choudhary from SFLC.in (www.sflc.in), Hija Kamran from Media Matters for Democracy (www.mediamatters.pk) and Oliver Spencer from Free Expression Myanmar (www.freeexpressionmyanmar.org/).

Hosted by Felicia Anthonia. Produced by Access Now, the #KeepItOn coalition, and Volume. Funding support from Internews. Production assistance by internet teapot. Music by Oman Morí.

Kill Switch is a podcast series that explores the alarming rise of anti-democratic internet shutdowns and related digital rights violations across the world. 

The series will follow inter-related stories looking at unique facets of internet shutdowns and digital rights violations from the unique perspectives of different role-players centred in different geographic locations.

Listen to the first episode on Monday 27 July wherever you get your podcasts.

Hosted by Felicia Anthonio.

Produced by Access Now, the #KeepItOn coalition and Volume.

With funding support from Internews.