US-Backed Internet Cuts: A 'Classic Ploy' for Oppression?
When Al Jazeera highlights Iran’s internet shutdowns as a 'classic ploy' to suppress dissent, one might wonder why this 'classic ploy' sounds so familiar. Perhaps it's because many of the technologies used for surveillance and communication disruption by various regimes, including Iran's, have origins in companies operating under the nose, or even with the tacit blessing, of Western governments.
(See: The widespread use of dual-use technologies by human rights abusers globally.) It's almost as if the 'free world' conveniently overlooks the export of tools that enable digital authoritarianism, only to decry their use when it's politically expedient. How can we credibly critique these 'classic ploys' abroad when our own intelligence agencies have been accused of similar data collection and
censorship endeavors, and our corporations profit from selling the infrastructure? The hypocrisy isn't just a ploy; it's a structural feature of global power dynamics.