October 2016

In June 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a non-binding resolution condemning the intentional shutdown or disruption of domestic Internet access. Despite the support of many member states, governments such as India, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq, Brazil, the Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Syria, Turkey, and Algeria have shut down Internet or mobile service, sometimes for an extended period. In my new paper, I detail the economic costs to countries that intentionally disrupt citizens’ digital access. I found 81 short-term Internet shutdowns that occurred in 19 countries between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016, and estimated that such obstruction cost the global economy at least US$2.4 billion. During the past year, India lost $968 million from Internet shutdowns, Saudi Arabia lost $465 million, Morocco lost $320 million, Iraq lost $209 million, Brazil lost $116 million, and the Republic of the Congo lost $72 million, among other nations.

Just a few years ago, life was dramatically different for 38-year-old Washington (DC) resident Behrooz Bakhtiary. Bakhtiary was a single father working odd jobs as a security guard, a club bouncer and a hotel concierge to pay child support when his 5-year-old daughter, Therela, was diagnosed with leukemia. Looking for a job online meant time spent walking to a public library to get access to a computer and the Internet to search for jobs — time that was hard to come by while already working full-time and trying to raise a 5-year-old. For millions of Americans, this Catch-22 is known as the digital divide — a term that once applied to people without Internet access but now refers to a spectrum of people whose lives are impacted by the limitations of Internet access.

Ironically, many experts argue that those trapped in the digital divide struggle to get out because of technology’s impact on the job market. “There are fewer and fewer jobs where you don’t have to interact with any type of technology,” Brookings Institute senior fellow Martha Ross said. Educational opportunities around technology are important because as the number of jobs that don’t require much formal education has ebbed, education has struggled to give students the skills they need to keep up with the pace of technology changes. While public schools and colleges argue over how soon some technology skills, such as coding, should be implemented into curriculum (some say children should start before they enter school), people who are not digital natives need stop-gap education in the meantime.

More than half of rural America doesn't have broadband service, and often, little or no access to the Internet at all, so rural advocates are issuing a call to action. The National Rural Assembly said its highest priorities for small-town America are better Internet access, improved opportunities for young people, and playing a bigger role in fighting climate change.

Sean McLaughlin, the executive director of Access Humboldt in Eureka (CA), is a founding member of the Assembly's rural broadband group. He said large swaths of northern and eastern California lack a fast Internet connection, strangling commerce and putting students at a disadvantage. "You have no way to get your homework done," he said. "It's really quite a handicap for education, particularly for students who are trying to apply to college; economic opportunities, to find jobs." More than 50 million Americans live in rural communities, which make up more than 80 percent of the country's land mass. The National Rural Assembly is a coalition of more than 500 organizations. It has dubbed its new campaign "Kids, Climate, Connection."