If you pay attention to international politics, you might have read about the recent election in Belarus. The country is known to be led by a dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. At least, he is a dictator according to most Western media. On August 9th, elections were held in the country, and according to the official information, he received 80% of the votes. However, most people believe the results to be fake! Now there are demonstrations, and people are really unhappy with the state of the country. However, if you read a newspaper in Belarus, you wouldn't read about him in the same context.
It reminds us a bit about China, and also about Hong Kong in which the biggest opposition media mogul was taken to prison yesterday (as he baldly spoke up against the Chinese regime who now have laid their hands on Hong Kong as well).
This isn't entirely the same, but we are looking at a world in which censorship turns more and more normal. But, this morning I read about something I haven't heard of before... a new sort of censorship - They turned off the Internet in Belarus.
Luckily, this isn't a widely used method, but according to some, this is what has happened in Belarus recently to stop demonstrations and to hinder people from communicating and spreading the news.
When a VPN isn't the solution
When we read of censorship in China, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, we also read recommendations of VPN services that use obfuscation technology that will help you surf securely and unblock all the websites you want to use. But, if they block all Internet users and the ISP's stop broadcasting signals, then a VPN will not help you much.
That is why I started to do some research this morning on what to do if Internet it shut down in your country? If governments decide to hinder you from reading news, checking your email, and communicating with others using the web... what can be done then?
Source: Pixabay
Satellite Internet is coming...
Currently, there are a couple of satellite Internet providers, and since it is run from satellites, there is little that can be done to hinder the usage by a local government. However, you need a quite large receiver to receive the signals, and in China, you can receive large punishments and more if you have such a receiver.
But, Elon Muska and Tesla are working with their SpaceX project, and Amazon is running their Kuiper project. The goal is to have thousands of satellites running in the low Earth orbit, with which they can provide Internet access to rural areas and more where there is no Internet today. After all, almost half the population of the earth is still unable to use the Internet due to a lack of access. According to Elon Musk, the size of the receiver will be like a pizza box (in other words, not very big, but not micro size either).
The first goal here might be to help people without Internet access to get one, but a side-effect might be that it will be easier to bypass censorship, firewalls, and local restrictions if you are in direct contact with satellites and not a local ISP.
The Netflix show Space Force
I thought Space Force was just a stupid Netflix show...
What will China do about this? What about Belarus? If those satellites get up and people start to use this as their source of Internet, then the "local" power will diminish and they might consider this to be a real threat.
What is the solution? What if China starts to shoot down the satellites to hinder the usage? If you thought Space Force was just the name of a stupid Netflix show with Steve Carrell, then you are wrong. It wasn't a coincidence that Donald Trump launched it because he really wanted to protect the American interests in space, like protecting satellites and other stuff from attacks, hacks, and more.
But, if China would start to shoot down American satellites, we are speaking of big trouble and a very dangerous future, so hopefully, that will not happen. But, who knows what the future brings?
If they turned off my Internet right now...
To be honest, I would not be prepared if they decided to shut down Internet nationwide in Hungary tomorrow. There are satellite Internet providers available, but I do not have a subscription, and once the regulations and censorship have been introduced, I guess it is too late to sign up for a new package and ask them to come and set it up for you.
I really hope this will not be a problem of the future, but seeing what has just happened in Belarus, I wouldn't be surprised if we might see similar movies in the future.
I am mostly speculating here and sharing some information and results of my research today. What do you think? Do you have any experience with satellite Internet? Or do you know of other solutions if all registered ISP's in your country suddenly would shut down?
I would love to hear from you!
This is an original article written by me for Project Hope!