Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 220 posts

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#31

Post by jessriedel »

lacy_tinpot wrote: post #28
mtmail wrote: post #8

2018 Algeria shut down internet during school exam season. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/21/algeria-shuts-... "Algeria is not, however, the only country to take such radical steps during exam season: Syria, Iraq, Mauritania, Uzbekistan and several Indian states reportedly block access to the internet. Ethiopia shuts down social media."

How do you study then?

At least in Algeria, they only did it during 2-3 hours of the day when the tests were taken.

> It published a timetable of the shutdown schedule: three one-hour blackouts, coinciding with the first hour of each baccalaureate exam, on Wednesday, and two each on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#32

Post by user_7832 »

groos wrote: post #19
molsongolden wrote: post #13

This is not uncommon across the border in the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Some years have seen dozens of connectivity blackouts with the stated goals of maintaining peace and order or disrupting terrorism.

[flagged]

> just in Kashmir where India cuts off all internet as a means of control over the population

Just for perspective, the government would likely claim that there have been multiple violent/deadly attacks over years/decades, often against the Indian army.

I am not going to comment on anything as to who is right or wrong beyond this because I barely know enough about the whole situation. All I know is that it is too complex for a single comment.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#33

Post by 1270018080 »

lacy_tinpot wrote: post #28
mtmail wrote: post #8

2018 Algeria shut down internet during school exam season. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/21/algeria-shuts-... "Algeria is not, however, the only country to take such radical steps during exam season: Syria, Iraq, Mauritania, Uzbekistan and several Indian states reportedly block access to the internet. Ethiopia shuts down social media."

How do you study then?

How to study during an exam? I think you'd be taking it, not studying.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#34

Post by yau8edq12i »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #22
stratocumulus0 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some countries including my home country Poland impose a ban on political agitation on the election day. It means that no political content may be published on that day, but whatever has been published before that is allowed to stay. This is an old law which predates the Internet, so anything from social media posts to hanging up election posters is liable to be prosecuted and the authorities frequently do so. It's l…

Wait, do Polish people not consider themselves part of the West? Genuine question. I've met and worked with quite a few Poles since moving to the EU and my current takeaway is that it's in a really interesting fusion time between West, East, and some more mysterious third thing.

I guess it was a shorthand for western Europe.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#35

Post by yau8edq12i »

riffraff wrote: post #27
nonrandomstring wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely very curious what you (and more generally other Poles) think of that? Also is it effective (of course you have no control case for comparison)? Thanks.

Not OP but we have the same regulation in Italy, coupled with one that forbids sharing opinion polls some days before the elections. People don't particularly care either way. They were somewhat effective pre-social media, but they relied also on a certain amount of fair play which is no longer as common as it once was.

Same here in France, and I guess most developed countries.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#36

Post by rangerelf »

lacy_tinpot wrote: post #28
mtmail wrote: post #8

2018 Algeria shut down internet during school exam season. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/21/algeria-shuts-... "Algeria is not, however, the only country to take such radical steps during exam season: Syria, Iraq, Mauritania, Uzbekistan and several Indian states reportedly block access to the internet. Ethiopia shuts down social media."

How do you study then?

You're not serious, are you? Books? Notebooks? Even downloading to your reading device? Screenshots if everything else fails?

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#37

Post by bluefirebrand »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #22
stratocumulus0 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some countries including my home country Poland impose a ban on political agitation on the election day. It means that no political content may be published on that day, but whatever has been published before that is allowed to stay. This is an old law which predates the Internet, so anything from social media posts to hanging up election posters is liable to be prosecuted and the authorities frequently do so. It's l…

Wait, do Polish people not consider themselves part of the West? Genuine question. I've met and worked with quite a few Poles since moving to the EU and my current takeaway is that it's in a really interesting fusion time between West, East, and some more mysterious third thing.

"The West" is a very murky sort of definition. Arguably the colloquial "Cultural West" is what is on the Western side of what used to be called the Iron Curtain. Poland was definitely on the Eastern side of that.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#38

Post by paint »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #16
omajid wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think looking at actions around elections in Pakistan through a western lens can lead to false conclusions easily. Let me try and explain through an analogy. Suppose a US political party (A) decided it wanted to win the US elections no matter what. And it had enough clout, "campaign contributions", among the various government agencies (courts, police, FBI) to make it happen. But it just didn't have the votes to ma…

Hmm, I tried to follow but that seemed a little elaborate. I think if someone tried to pull-off what you described (declaring a candidate disqualified within a week of an election) you'd have civil unrest or worse on your hands regardless any information flows.

[dead]

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#39

Post by wozniacki »

TriNetra wrote: post #15
sofixa wrote: post #2

On one hand, this is a classic dictatorship move. Senegal just did the same just after postponing elections. On the other hand, Pakistan really did have terrorist attacks just before the election, targeted at the election. So taking heavy handed steps to protect the election integrity can be explained.

IN Pakistan army decides and is the real ruler. Elections are only a face to appear as a democratic sate. In fact Pakistan elite (including army higher ranks) just is there to milk the country and build estates outside (West/UAE/etc).

Isnt it also true that no democratically elected or coup-installed Prime Minister in Pakistan's history has ever successfully completed a single full term in office, ever since their independence[1]?

And if that is true, isn't Pakistan a glorified tin-pot republic, thats democracy only on paper & manages to stay alive at the mercy of the propping-up prowess of U.S. and U.K., to act as a lily pad[2] of sorts in the region?

[1]

Every time the gov’t topples (no Pakistani Prime Minister has completed 5 years in office), corruption/looting reaches even higher levels… …to replenish and grow the bounty that was paid to buy out votes in elections and in the parliament. Sad, but v familiar to Pakistanis. 12:08 PM · Apr 9, 2022

https://twitter.com/bznotes/status/1512870199338287106

[2] Cooperative security location

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_security_location

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#40

Post by H8crilA »

The craziest thing is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And not only that, the weapons are at the disposal of the local (very high ranking) commanders. It also is a country where the military is really in charge, only occasionally giving back the control to a civilian government.

Sometimes people think that Eastern Europe is the most likely place to get nuked, or perhaps some American carrier off the coast of China. But in reality it's both Pakistan and India.

Post reply on HN