African Island Demanding Government Action Punished with Year-Long Internet Outage

"When residents of Equatorial Guinea's Annobón island wrote to the government in Malabo in July last year complaining about the dynamite explosions by a Moroccan construction company, they didn't expect the swift end to their internet access..." reports the Associated Press.

"Residents and activists said the company's dynamite explosions in open quarries and construction activities have been polluting their farmlands and water supply..." Dozens of the signatories and residents were imprisoned for nearly a year, while internet access to the small island has been cut off since then, according to several residents and rights groups. Local residents interviewed by The Associated Press left the island in the past months, citing fear for their lives and the difficulty of life without internet. Banking services have shut down, hospital services for emergencies have been brought to a halt and residents say they rack up phone bills they can't afford because cellphone calls are the only way to communicate...

The company's work on the island continues. Residents hoped to pressure authorities to improve the situation with their complaint in July last year. Instead, [the country's president] then deployed a repressive tactic now common in Africa to cut off access to internet to clamp down on protests and criticisms.

Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Is watching and taking notes.

Re:

[guygo]

Notes??? Trump don take no steenkin notes.

Re:Trump

[msauve]

>Trump don take no steenkin notes.

No, he takes classified documents to store in his pool house.

Re:

[Fons_de_spons]

Didn't he have some woman to do that for him? I think she was also responsible to praise him by reading aloud favorable news paper articles about him.
We really need to make some sort of mesh network that cannot be shut down. It can be slow though.

Re:

[narcc]

LoRaWAN

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

You think he takes notes with a sharpie?

Re:

[Kernel Kurtz]

You think he takes notes with a sharpie?

Crayons FTW!

Re:

[anoncoward69]

LOL good luck with that. Trump shuts down the internet? We got starlink to take over. Good luck on Trump trying to stop Starlink now that him and Musk have broken off their love affair.

Re:

[Midnight Thunder]

The only notes he'd be taking is on X, but I'm not even sure he thinks anywhere in Africa is a real country?

Surprising

[alvinrod]

I'm surprised that they dared complain in the first place. Equatorial Guinea is one of those countries that's been under an oppressive dictatorship for so long that popular content creators on YouTube will eventually wind up making a video about the country or something ridiculous that the country's current or former President (for life) got up to. This is one of those rare cases where no one would really protest if the CIA overthrew the government.

Re: Surprising

[sixminuteabs]

What is your fucking problem exactly? This isnâ(TM)t Truth Social. If I say dumb shit about smartphones I get asked for citations. Are you special?

Re:

[anoncoward69]

Perhaps the people of Palestine should have overthrown their govt before we got to the situation we are in today.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

He could be referring to Nepal.

Re:

[thegarbz]

You'll never find them protesting outside these dictators embassies or going on marches about atrocities in their countries.

Yeah never ... except for literally all the time.

Re:

[Entrope]

If it happens that often, Shirley you can provide some evidence to support your claim.

The Google Street View pictures of Equatorial Guinea's embassy in Washington DC do not show any protesters outside, so it's obviously not literally all the time, but I'm willing to accept some other form of evidence that the "freedom and democracy" crowd (who often turn that into "freedumbs and dumbocracy" when they don't like the results of elections) protest it regularly.

Re:

[drainbramage]

Who is Shirley?

Re:

[Entrope]

I think she was a character in Airplane! [slate.com] (the movie).

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

There might have been a hashtag.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

And in particular Annobon is more under occupation by Equatorial Guinea than part of it. Guinea uses it to claim a vast swath of ocean territory while using it as dumping ground for toxic waste and generally exploiting it as much as possible.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

For more on the kleptocratic hellhole that is Equatorial Guinea, see this report [theguardian.com].

\o/

[easyTree]

So, in summary - the group imposing punishment have accepted they are at fault but feel powerless to do the right thing so have taken steps to attract attention to their wrongdoing in the hope that someone will help them do the right thing.

Strange.

[Gravis Zero]

It just so happens that I'm writing a paper on Equatorial Guinea and upon being freed from Spanish rule, some ass declared himself president for life and about 10 years later another ass took over in a coup and guess what replaced the dictator? It was an authoritarian government lead by the ass that took over as a "president" (only the rich and loyal get to vote, not the poors). Equatorial Guinea is one of the largest oil producers in Sub-Saharan Africa and all the money goes to the "president" and his family. Only half the people have access to clean drinking water. It's rated one of the worst countries for freedom, getting a 5 out of 100. For reference, Afghanistan got a 6 out of 100 and North Korea got a 3 out of 100. See also: https://freedomhouse.org/count... [freedomhouse.org]

This is actually the same island that they tried to get a deal with Britain to store toxic waste on. The only reason it didn't go through is because Britain's got upset and their government suddenly decided against it. However, the people on the island were merely going to be casualties when the waste invariably leaked into the streams, aquifers, and ocean.

I honestly do not know why they expected anything different from this guy. He basically thinks they are ants to be stepped on.

Re:

[alvinrod]

This reads to me like the sort of pithy post that's directed at something that I've apparently missed, but to your comment empathy is an overrated emotion that should be met with skepticism, particularly when it's politicians espousing it. Any number bet atrocities can and have been done because someone feels the plights of the people. The current dictator of this country no doubt claims to represent the feelings of his people. Like any other feeling, empathy is something that can be claimed by anyone. Unle

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

The context is that the recently assassinated Charlie Kirk had spoken against empathy [snopes.com].

Re: Strange.

[Fons_de_spons]

Yup, definitely should have added a few more /s es

Re:

[sg_oneill]

One day we will learn in school that empathy is bad. An out of date emotion that was only useful when we were a grazing herd.

Spoken like a true sociopath.

Without empathy we dont have society. Without empathy we don't have morality. Without empathy were little more than apes dashing each others brains out with rocks over territory.

What a stupid claim. Evolution gave us the mirror neuron for a goddamn reason.

Re: Strange.

[Fons_de_spons]

Ah, should have added another /s at the end. You are right, of course.

Re:

[0xG]

He basically thinks they are ants to be stepped on.

You mean... he is not hindered by empathy to take difficult decisions. (/s)
One day we will learn in school that empathy is bad.

I am amazed by the number of people who took this comment seriously.
And wasted mod points to vote him down.

Seriously folks, you do not recognize sarcasm, even with a helpful /s tag?

And some of those who took it seriously AGREED with him.
Oh, the lulz...

Re: Strange.

[Fons_de_spons]

People agreed with me? My God, we are lost. I am surprised my self by the reactions this got. I try to avoid these things. Oh well modded out of people's reading list may be a good thing.

Re:

[h33t l4x0r]

It just so happens that I'm writing a paper on Equatorial Guinea

Doesn't your grandfather mind you posting on his slashdot account?