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Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

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

#121

Post by scotty79 »

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).

This dynamics is the underlying principle of every democracy. Only the sophistication of the civilian facade differs.

If you want to see how fast things show their true colors stop paying "your" soldiers. When it happens due to breakdown of government-nation relationship coup or military pacification of civilians is imminent.

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

#122

Post by alephnerd »

H8crilA wrote: post #40

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

If you want to stay up at night - India, Pakistan, and China basically had a Cuban Missle Crisis level event in 2019-2020.

India and Pakistan almost went to war in 2019 after the Pulwama attack [0] and then India and China were a trigger away from starting a war over the Galwan river [1].

[0] - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/25/india-pakistan-came...

[1] - https://theprint.in/defence/nearing-breaking-point-gen-narav...

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

#123

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

FredPret wrote: post #117
chupchap wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Globally-unique addresses are also easier to censor

If devices talk directly to one another there's very little a central authority could do to censor communication

It might be true that devices could connect across the US-Canadian border, but most borders are dead spots.

I suspect that, when territory was being scammed, stolen, claimed, fought over, whatever... borders tend to develop in those places where there isn't a big population. And those borders have tended to remain empty. There will be exceptions, but not enough to matter.

Short of science fiction devices, I dunno wormholes or split-particle pairs or whatever, I don't think this is viable.

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

#124

Post by alephnerd »

renewiltord wrote: post #48
H8crilA wrote: post #40

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.…

Well, one of those two countries has a no-first-use nuclear doctrine, so I imagine there's a probability conditional there.

> one of those two countries has a no-first-use nuclear doctrine

They're thinking about doing away with it in India due to the China factor (though politicians will always say it's because of Pakistan) [0][1].

It's kind of scary tbh. China expands it's arsenal to compete with the US. India gets scared and starts expanding it's arsenal in turn. Pakistan gets scared and they start expanding their arsenal as well. And this has caused all 3 countries to enter an arms race that is not going to slowdown anytime soon.

It's already having a destabilizing effect in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Afghanistan, Eastern Africa, etc

[0] - https://www.orfonline.org/research/nuclear-rethink-a-change-...

[1] - https://www.livemint.com/news/india/india-s-no-first-use-nuc...

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

#125

Post by apapapa »

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."

It's still crazy but more reasonable to shut it down for exams than elections

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

#127

Post by arccy »

standardUser wrote: post #101
jdewerd wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standardized testing does not aim to be a perfect evaluation, it aims to be a good enough evaluation that can be made highly resistant to corruption/bribery relative to its qualitative alternatives.

They could divide it into 5-10 different test, administered over the course of several years. Anything but what they are doing now, which sounds like it was custom designed to encourage drug abuse and suicide.

now your stress is over several years, and if you fail an early one, what motivation do you have to keep on going?

plus as children / young adults, many are still developing so you want to push testing as late as possible

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

#128

Post by apapapa »

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.

No.

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

#129

Post by jrockway »

pphysch wrote: post #12
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.

How does cutting off communications prevent terrorist cells from executing their planned attacks? The real reason is obviously that the ruling elite usurped and imprisoned Pakistan's most popular leader, which means the political situation is very volatile.

I guess it's not a terrorist attack if nobody knows about it. Imagine you see the news "Poll site in the Bronx firebombed" right before you head out to vote. You're going to think twice about voting. But if you don't see that news story, you'll just go vote, because you don't know there's a risk of being killed.

The logic makes sense but I wouldn't like to see a media ban here. "Congress shall make no law..."

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

#130

Post by stainablesteel »

PrimeMcFly wrote: post #95
stainablesteel wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'm trying to understand how or why you would manipulate votes like this call me crazy but i think mass-scale communication is a better way to manipulate votes, it allows people far away from each other to coordinate their numbers but if you cut off their coordination mechanism they can't exchange information, and perhaps they might fear pushing out fake numbers in case the numbers of them plus a few others look stra…

If people are going to vote a certain way out of fear or due to having been misled, cutting off communication is a safeguard against those people caning their minds or being convinced by facts. Just for one example.

i guess if they're making up their mind at the last minute
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