'Near-Total Internet Shutdown' for Third Night in a Row in Myanmar (twitter.com) 80
Myanmar's new military government has enforced a "near-total internet shutdown" in the country for the third night in a row, and fifth such communication blackout of this kind this month. NetBlocks, which tracks internet outages globally, reports: Myanmar is in the midst of a near-total internet shutdown for the third night in a row ; real-time network data show national connectivity collapsing to 19% of ordinary levels from 1 am local; incident ongoing.
Re: HEY YOU INDOCHIMP MS. MASH (Score:1)
Lol, do you really think anyone of them is reading Myanmar new. Americans being literate in foreign languages is the real joke here. Hell, them being literate in their mother's tongue, is already not to be expected.
Re:Asian countries (Score:5, Insightful)
My reaction to your comment was a literal laugh. As an American, I have to say it's not just Asian countries at the moment. My own country is currently in a headlong rush towards authoritarianism. Sure, we may have taken a brief detour here or there, but with our current political climate, and the number of people clamoring for stricter government control of nearly all aspects of life, we're still headed that way.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: Asian countries (Score:2)
And the implication that Biden *ISN'T* the president
doesn't exist in the comment you replied to.
Re: Asian countries (Score:1)
I really wonder what causes countries all around the world to become more and more authoritarian these last two decades or so... Even countries that couln't be more different and are opposing each other.
Who but the USA or China leadership that that universal a power? I'm sure Russia or Israel or the EU also try to, but that's it. I mean this seems like the kind of thing they'd decide together at those G8 or whatever conferences. Or maybe at the UN.
Re: Asian countries (Score:5, Insightful)
I really wonder what causes countries all around the world to become more and more authoritarian these last two decades or so...
The Internet. It has given a voice to formerly marginalized people who demand immediate simplistic solutions to complex problems, and are willing to surrender power to populists who promise to give them what they want.
Who but the USA or China leadership that that universal a power?
This is a completely wrong diagnosis. The problem is coming up from the bottom, not down from the top. Take Trump as an example. He was opposed by almost all of the Republican establishment when he announced his candidacy. Big business was backing Jeb Bush. The party only fell in line when they saw him winning primary after primary and watched his opponents get voted out of office.
Re: Asian countries (Score:4)
The voice given to the people by the internet to make demands is not what has caused authoritarianism. Rather it's the voice provided to the minorities that made them more vocal and made it easier to spread misinformation.
And misinformation is the key word here. The push towards authoritarianism is by those people you *believe* they are marginalised or worse off. The reality is nothing is further from the truth. The lower class white has never been wealthier or more better off than they have been now, yet the belief continues to perpetuate that the world has left them behind, that the Mexicans and Indians are destroying their lives, that the black people are trying to overthrow the police and change the white man's life as they know it. As they breath in the fresh air they are told to believe that democracy is ending the poor coal and oil industry and that the EPA needs to be taken down. They watch Fox News on their $150 LCD TVs while being told nothing is made in America again and that we should be demanding the "better" life from the government (the fact that the better life did not come with cheap electronics is never mentioned).
#MAGA is built on the fantasy that the past America was any more great and that people were any better off. People are voting for the authoritarian who promises them a better life (as they always have throughout history). The only thing the internet is doing is amplifying the lies.
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who demand immediate simplistic solutions to complex problems
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" - H. L. Mencken
This is, IMHO, the root cause of the current societal problem.
Because everybody considers themselves an expert on everything now, and confirmation bias is a big thing, this incentives populists to simply go along with whatever short-term nonsense the masses are thinking. That is the main challenge of democracies in these times.
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I really wonder what causes countries all around the world to become more and more authoritarian these last two decades or so...
Why? Reactionary politics is extremely natural, starts in the authoritarian home, where it is cultivated by those who want power.
And two decades? please, try the last thousand
And if you watch Animal Planet for a week, you will learn the clear concept of monkey see, monkey do.
There is nothing new or mysterious about our present condition.
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I really wonder what causes countries all around the world to become more and more authoritarian these last two decades or so.
Regression to the mean? Liberal democracy is kind of an anomaly when you look at the broad sweep of human history. Sad but true.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I really wonder what causes countries all around the world to become more and more authoritarian these last two decades or so...
Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
Weak mean create hard times.
We are at the last stage of the cycle.
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> Strong men create good times.
Judging by past examples (Hitler, Stalin), this appears not to be the case.
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History. British stitched together a bunch of different tribal areas. After Japanese occupation, the country became independent but its government tried to keep the disparate groups together. It lasted for a while but the civilian gov't couldn't hold it together. A by-product of British rule was a strong military with a culture of privilege attached to membership. Rather than federalism or granting more autonomy to the provinces, the military staged a coup. Typical of many states that create a class system
The British are responsible for all the ills (Score:4, Insightful)
Before they came, everyone lived in peace and harmony. Then the British inflicted their COLONIAL rule, with its despicable ideas like a civil society, democracy and railroads. And so of course, countries like Burma fell apart all because of the British. And of course the wonderful Japanese tried to liberate Burma from the evil British which is why several Burmese leaders supported them.
This is why places like Thailand which never had British rule inflicted upon them no continue to live in piece and harmony.
Nonsense.
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going on in Japan
In Japan, that status was based on a ruling structure that grew internally. Samurai had loyalty to their lords from whom they derived rights and privileges. Eventually this became loyalty and duty to the Emperor. In Burma, the military infrastructure was created by the British to hold together tribes/provinces that didn't want that form of unity.
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Re: Asian countries (Score:1)
History goes farther than the 19th and early 20th century. Try to keep up, the Asian civilizations have historically been more advanced than European, having gone between forms of feudalism and capitalism and even having forms of democracy to times dating centuries before Christ. Your ethno-centric racist worldview is despicable.
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What makes them so prone to authoritarianism?
Aren't they just following America's lead?
Nothing says peaceful handover of power after free and fair elections like a Trummper tantrum.
Their coup was just a bit more competent.
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Re: Nothing of value was lost (Score:1)
Yeah, because they totally had a choice.. Idiot.
This is an American cultural meme, by the way, to make the people always blame themselves. And to believe that you are a perfect individual that is always in full control of itself. It's how they keep people like you enslaved. Thankfully, not all Americans are like you, and people more and more realize that they might just not be to blame for ALL the bad in their lives.
probably ordered by china (Score:3, Informative)
Re: probably ordered by china (Score:1)
No, but they are equivalent. As is Fox news.
But keep calling others dumbasses. Tells us more about you than about me. "#projecting!", as the kids say nowadays.
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Re: probably ordered by china (Score:2)
You will find that you need a lot of IP adresses.
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They explicitly say China supports both sides, doesn't care who is in power and just wants a railroad through the country and a port on the Indian ocean.
Myanmar detection service (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
If you are reading this, you are not in Myanmar. Thank you, that will be $15.
...and I am in Myanmar. I think I will keep my 15 bucks, thank you very much! This news report is correct, though.
Re: Myanmar detection service (Score:2)
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Apropos video https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Twitter is gone, but the violence is rising (Score:3)
Who would have guessed?
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You mean computer games and gamers aren't responsible for all the violence! /s
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Who would have guessed?
Yeah, we need to fill up some American bombers with mobile phones and wifi routers to help placate the public. Give them a Netflix subscription and you won't see any riots anymore.
#jokingbutamIreally
What's the remaining traffic you ask? (Score:3)
19% of ordinary levels from 1 am local; incident ongoing.
And that's just general Min Aung Hlaing downloading porn from his bunker and preparing for the best wank ever.
Star Link (Score:3)
Star Link has a so much potential to end bullshit like this. Imagine if we can come up with a device the size of a laptop that can link into the Star Link network with out a large antenna. Smuggle some of these in to places like North Korea.
Death penalty is big deterrent (Score:1)
You get the death penalty for making in international phone call in North Korea :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
They wipe out your entire family existence including your dog, if they catch you with an satellite phone.
Re:Star Link (Score:4, Informative)
Star Link has a so much potential to end bullshit like this.
Only by Governments directly, Star Link itself could still shut everyone's connections off either for their own reasons or at the "polite request" of what ever government they were currently trying to curry favor with. Just look at how Google, Twitter, FB, etc. all roll over and filter stuff for the leaders of various regions that they want to do business in.
Imagine if we can come up with a device the size of a laptop that can link into the Star Link network with out a large antenna. Smuggle some of these in to places like North Korea.
Already been tried with small transceivers, doesn't work. No mater how small the package it still needs to emit a radio signal to be of any use, and NK, and any other government that didn't want it's people to using Star Link, would track the signal, or just jam it by flooding the part of the radio spectrum used by Star Link ground stations with enough local noise to make a connection impossible.
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Star Link has a so much potential to end bullshit like this. .
Because Facebook and Twitter did such amazing things for the American political system...
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Star Link has a so much potential to end bullshit like this. .
Because Facebook and Twitter did such amazing things for the American political system...
Starlink has nothing to do with Facebook and Twitter. The first is a service providing internet access while the two latter are social networks. The free internet has transformed the world in marvelous ways and given freedom to millions of people. Facebook and Twitter on the other hand have been forces for both good and evil. Personally I do not like them and I only have limited use of Facebook and no use of Twitter. But I do recognize that in spite of the downsides of their services the upside is far great
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Starlink has nothing to do with Facebook and Twitter. The first is a service providing internet access while the two latter are social networks.
Captain obvious to the rescue....
They may be forced to not do that as the relative economic power of authoritarian countries continue to increase over the coming decades.
But really what can they do about it? Assuming Elon Musk has no other business interest in these countries he can tell them go jump and there's very little they can do about. I actually agree with your comments, I was just being a smart ass :)
Did anyone notice? (Score:4, Interesting)
Then when we went to the dining area, all the staff were just glued to TV. Apparently they'd never seen a TV before so it was all new to them, or maybe it was the Android TV so it was the first time they had seen something that wasn't state run media.
The other interesting thing was that in the capital Yangon, a city of 7 million people had exactly 3 ATMs. So it a place that is dirt poor with very little technology, so I'm not so sure the Internet is thing that many people will miss.
Re:America much better (Score:4, Informative)
In America, we only shut off effective internet access to deposed presidents, instead of to everyone.
You mean twice impeached disgraced former President Trump don't you?
He was voted out in free and fair elections, not deposed. And he still has Internet access. Twitter just stopped him from spamming lies constantly.
Why night? (Score:2)
What's the purpose of shutting off internet at night while leaving it on during the day? Can protests only be organized at 1am, and not at 1pm, for some reason?
Facebook Search (Score:2)
What is peculiar in Myanmar is that most of the internet search & browsing occurs through Facebook (not google/chrome/opera/Firefox/Bing/etc.).
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Is it better to be proper or successful?
Might be too early to tell in both cases/countries.
Republicans still love Trump because he is successful (recent coups aside). Republicans are still completely beholden to him.
Democrats are going to fail miserably, because they are too busy trying to be proper.