Internet shutdowns by governments are bad for corporate marketing

[adzino]

Before internet, people have been doing business and there are even companies that have survived for centuries and during those dark days, that was when they witnessed some of their massive growth. Internet comes with its own advantage but it does not means that without it, people wont still find a way to transact and do business with one another.

Of course, business existed before internet. That doesn't mean that business can now still work without internet. The internet has too much impact on daily business for which without it, the normal business is going to be hampered. Agriculture existed before modern technologies were invented and during agricultural period it had massive growth. Now imagine taking away modern technology and cultivating in the old school way. We won't be able to meet peoples demand! The same goes for the business. Without internet, it is going to be though.

Now when government shut down the internet, while businesses whose existence relied on that, they would surely have their reason for doing that and that is what the citizens needs to find out whether their reasons are valid or not.

Have their own reason or their own benefit?

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[Kong Hey Pakboy]

never experience a loss on internet for a long time but internet can be unavailable here if the networks are conducting a maintenance or if there s something wrong like thier towers were damage by narural events but im lucky because network operators here can respond quickly and problem dont take long enough like what happened on you case  which took 3 months , cant imagine my life like that if i was on your situation . however internet here is slow and even got slower and i suspect this is because of pandemic .

Having no internet connection or slow internet connection due to a bad internet service provider is affecting corporate or small business marketing. They will have a slow progression of selling and promoting their products that will result in a vast downfall on their sales. This kind of situation is also a harmful effect for people who uses cryptocurrency as their daily living or source of income because they won't be able to manage their portfolios or make a trade.

[20kevin20]

I think there's a larger issue surrounded by internet shutdown than corporate marketing and businesses. It's the society itself. We're relying on the internet on a daily basis so much that shutting it off means cutting off so many ways of communicating, learning, researching etc. And while third-world countries are not as developed from this perspective as first-world ones, I am quite sure a level of tech/internet addiction has been touched in third-world ones as well.

I can't even comprehend what 3 days of internet outage in a country such as USA could have as a result. Nowadays it's not only teens that are addicted to phones and the internet, but also adults and even older groups of age.

Here in Romania, I don't even want to imagine how easily an internet outage could bring down like over half of the services we currently use. The majority of teens probably wouldn't even be able to go through an usual day properly. Internet shutdowns affect us from all sides, so combine that with lockdowns and the looming recession and there you have the image of a monster waiting to attack.

[Shasha80]

Now the internet is a basic human need like food, not only bad for corporate marketing, For some people who have income from
the internet it will be bad if the internet shuts down. Many large companies experience big loss of profit if an internet shutdown occurs,
therefore internet providers usually have made backups so that the internet is always on 24/7. So it is impossible for the government
to make an internet shutdown.The government will shut down the internet if it is in a situation of war or endangers national security,
it is also impossible for the entire area to be closed for internet access. Fortunately in my country the government has never shut down
the internet.

[proTECH77]

Internet is very important to humanity and organizations.
Many companies are using internet to advertise their products and also use it to sale and purchase  commodities.
i think internet shutdown by the government cannot collapse corporate market, it can only reduce their marketing process.
Even the government know that corporate marketer they need steady internet to advertise their business to gain more customers and profit, so that it will be easy for them to pay their tax to government.

[amishmanish]

Ahh. Good to know that people in Sudan are into bitcoin too. I have worked in Sudan and I always find it unfortunate that despite such jolly and good-hearted people, African countries remain embroiled in internal strife. When i was there, South Sudan got separated but things were looking good for Sudan. News of this internet ban tells me that the president is back to assert his control over the intelligentsia.
I remember that the internet infra there was always pretty good. The coverage of 3G wasn't all that good in India but we used to have nice internet connection 300 Km from Khartoum (Kosti, Rabak). Hope the country and its people are finding their way to happiness and public liberties.

Speaking of public liberties, yes India has a Kashmir problem. The same old saga of separatism stoked by religious fundamentalism. Indian govt has no choice but to prevent these Pakistan backed plans.

[NotATether]

The shutdowns were happening every single morning and customer support wasn't helpful. Then I finally found the reason online:

https://wonderfulengineering.com/sudan-turns-off-mobile-internet-to-stop-students-from-cheating-in-university-exams/

It is the season for university admission exams in Sudan, and its authorities have taken an unusual step to counter the events of cheating.

Sudan’s government has ordered its mobile network providers to turn off cellular data during the three hours of tests, those of which have already started and will go on till the 24th of September. This will ensure a level playing ground for every student, and the entries will be entirely based on merit.

Sudan’s government has been using this technique to counter any protests against its administrative authorities, which helps them reduce the co-ordination between protesters and its wide-spread propaganda on social media. However, the South African country is using the same methodology for preventing happenings of cheating in entry exams for the very first time.

This cycle for disrupting the cellular data all across the country started on the 16th of September. The network providers began to get tons of complaints in no time, upon which they let people know that they are following state orders. Only then the public got to understand why they don’t have internet access despite paying their bills.

Three years ago, Sudanese authorities had to re-conduct entry exams due to extensive cheating as the paper got leaked online. It is the pretty much reason why they had to take such a step during exams going on these days.

Mobile data for around 13 million users get turned off from 8 am-11 am, leaving them isolated from the world-wide-web during this period. However, essential institution’s operations aren’t disrupted as they are backed by cable internet connections such as government institutions, money exchanges, and banks.

There are numerous ways to prevent cheating in exams that you might have heard of, but this one is so far the most extreme way to stop such happenings.

What the fuck?? Who the hell turns off the entire country's mobile internet infrastructure just to stop students from cheating in exams? It's so stupid, they're hurting everyone else who uses the internet.

[Natsuu]

This kind of thing have not happened in my country before. But the thought of a government shutting down internet, mehn that’s really a dumb thing to do; why would they be shutting down the internet, for what reason exactly? In our world today most of the things that we are doing has to do with internet.

There are some companies like online shopping platforms like Amazon that relies completely on the internet, because without the and if people don’t have access to the internet there is no way that these companies are going to make any sale. And that company might be one that’s contributing well to the GDP of the country. It’s not a good thing to shut down internet.

To answer your question, this action of the government came from I think the privacy, and deafen the people from hearing truths about the country and the administration. First is the privacy, with privacy in mind, the recent issue about the application TIKTOK where they said that Chinese use this app to spy on the US by getting the information from its users. this issue had been circulating lately and tiktok community do quite be disturbed by this news. (2) is to deafen the people from hearing truths, for as we all know that some administration had been making some disturbing malpractices towards their citizen. Just like in Thailand where they said that their president is a dictator and doing violence against the people who voice out. Also in the USA where the #BLACKLIVESMATTER began. Without the internet, citizen all around the will be having a hard time try to discover this happenings.

Yet, shutting down the internet is such a crap given that this gives the people a wider area of access for services. and the amount of service will add up to the economy of a country, so if this really happens, sketchy happenings will happen in that country because there is no acceptable reason to defend the shutting down of internet.

[Hydrogen]

I have a reason to believe that civilians deprived of internet access is dangerous for companies trying to make a profit.

If you've ever read a news headline where a business claimed to suffer large monetary losses due to website defacement or IT attacks resulting in site downtime.

They calculate those statistics by multiplying the number of hours their website was down times their average revenue per hour.

If amazon's revenue per hour is $2 million. And their website was defaced by a 9 year old hacker and down for 5 hours. They might claim $10 million in damages.

In that sense I think what you're saying there is acknowledged by the legal system as an industry standard since the 1980s.

Other countries appear to be importing Sudan's internet shutdown techniques

I think its commonly referred to as a "great firewall of china" or "internet kill switch".

It wasn't so long ago that many american politicians were saying the united states needed an internet kill switch like the one china has.

[fiulpro]

It is not just bad for corporate marketing but at the same time due to pandemic most :
- Jobs
- Shopping
- Studies
Etc...
Everyday work is dependent on the internet, now so more than ever. If the government decides to shut down the internet , the people who are living there won't be able to cope up with this situation for too long and come up with other methods.

-Plus I do believe civilians without any internet connection are not dangerous for the company since it's ultimately the fault of the government themselves. People don't have a say in it.

[bitgolden]

Normally it is not a good thing to actually cut down an entire countries internet, whatever the reason is it can't be enough because we are talking about something a lot bigger than any reason that could be given.

However if they are really bringing something as tiny as this, "to stop cheating" that is really even worse. Nobody should have this much power over a country and that is the trouble with underdeveloped nations, this is why Norway and so forth are so great and other nations are not.

In highly developed and happy nations "powerful" people are people who are famous for good reasons and not bad, politicians and so forth do not cover the news that much and there are no powerful people who could abuse their power to make themselves even more powerful. Having internet cut down because they asked for it to "prevent cheating" is not something they should have as a power, internet companies should be capable of saying "no we won't do it" if they do not want to.

[Genemind]

There was a brief total internet shutdown over here today that lasted for a few hours. All of the ISPs cut off internet access for some reason and then restored it back. It reminded me of the time mobile internet access was shut down for almost three months last year. Obviously they didn't touch broadband lines so that they didn't disrupt company operations and bring economic selling to a halt. But I have a reason to believe that civilians deprived of internet access is dangerous for companies trying to make a profit.

In third-world countries, companies rely on social media platforms like Facebook for their marketing, advertising and to attract new customers. By shutting off internet access, you are effectively drying up their revenue streams, which cannot continue for too long (like for the course of months), or all of them will start reporting losses. Nearly all people here use 4G or 3G internet on their SIM cards, and not a router. So the more people using mobile internet in a country, the more drastic the consequences of an internet shutdown are for companies.

Other countries appear to be importing Sudan's internet shutdown techniques (India, Ethiopia) but surely they have to know that by shutting down the internet, they are reducing company sales. Sure the company's operations themselves aren't affected, but how are they supposed to sustain them without sales?

Of course a company that ships physical goods isn't affected by an internet shutdown, but they still lose their social media marketing abilities, because no one can read them.

Seriously though, does anyone happen to know the cause for the loss of internet today?

Internet cutdowns has a huge impact not just in lots of businesses but also to ordinary people especially for freelancers, online workers and even for students. One of the major things that we need during this pandemic is the internet supply since most of us are working online. I guess if the goverment would do things like this, they should provide a second internet provider option so business operations or even the education wouldn't be affected. It will be a big loss for the economy.

[yulchatar]

Before internet, people have been doing business and there are even companies that have survived for centuries and during those dark days, that was when they witnessed some of their massive growth. Internet comes with its own advantage but it does not means that without it, people wont still find a way to transact and do business with one another. Now when government shut down the internet, while businesses whose existence relied on that, they would surely have their reason for doing that and that is what the citizens needs to find out whether their reasons are valid or not.

Of course it's possible. Many of us remember the time without the Internet, when everyone and everything worked "offline". But now almost all databases are digitized, the supply of goods to stores and supermarkets is completely tied to the connection to the network, as is the supply of drugs to pharmacies. The delivery itself is carried out using navigators. And so on. In fact, almost any company can work without the Internet, but it will take a very large amount of time and effort.

[Nhor1011]

There will be a lot of affected if ever there is an internet shutdown specially now that there is an online classes because of pandemic. Our government talked all the internet company to build a better internet connection urgent. Not only business company will become affected but also those work online like in cryptocurrency.

[abhiseshakana]

I am sure there a lot more downsides to internet shutdown compared to corporate marketing. I mean sure corporations do not do marketing as much because there are no people online and that means bad for business and I agree that it is bad for business and when it is bad for business those companies make less profit and when they make less profit they hire less people and pay less taxes and eventually one internet shutdown becomes something huge.

However we are talking about something bigger, internet is something so huge that it allows people to connect to each other all around the world, when you shut that down you are basically cutting ties with the world at this day and age so it could potentially have stuff that are way bigger than just companies not doing marketing.

Discussing internet shutdown, I thought about the form of the third world war, namely space war, and cyberwar between countries. If the shutdown by the government can cause large even though measurable losses, what if the shutdown is deliberately carried out by a country to paralyze another country.

America has developed a "US Space Force" and this is one of America's ambitions to dominate the world. Technological developments have made space a battlefield that must be guarded and protected. The attack on a satellite is wide and infinite so that the economic loss is immeasurable and the most terrible is the threat to the territorial sovereignty of a country.

So technology does make it easier and makes a high level of dependability, so we forget to prepare manual mode if the technology stops.

[Salauddin1994]

Without the use of the internet almost everything will become obsolete all the work in the world is done through the internet shutting down the internet by the government is bad for corporate marketing and it will bring the world down even further. In the beginning internet-based communication was disrupted no information could be exchanged in the country via email or social media. App-based communication systems like viber and whatsapp would also be out of order the problem was more with those who needed to speak abroad.

[michellee]

Seriously though, does anyone happen to know the cause for the loss of internet today?

The internet shutdown can bring sadness to people because many people have online works that depend on the internet. And if somehow, in his country, the internet is not online, it will make him can not work as usual. The internet has now become a primary thing for people, especially for the young generation who always connect to the internet. They will not be able to do many things, especially for playing games which many young generations did.

[Kasabus]

Seriously though, does anyone happen to know the cause for the loss of internet today?

The internet shutdown can bring sadness to people because many people have online works that depend on the internet. And if somehow, in his country, the internet is not online, it will make him can not work as usual. The internet has now become a primary thing for people, especially for the young generation who always connect to the internet. They will not be able to do many things, especially for playing games which many young generations did.

If those people are having struggles when there is internet shutdown, how much more to those companies who cannot continue to generate their sales because there is no internet access. Having an  internet shutdown even just for few hours is really a big loss for marketing companies even for those individuals who are making a living through internet connections.

[hugeblack]

What the fuck?? Who the hell turns off the entire country's mobile internet infrastructure just to stop students from cheating in exams? It's so stupid, they're hurting everyone else who uses the internet.

The same thing happened in Algeria and in some Arab countries. I remember that it happened in Egypt for a few hours because of the final exams, which are considered part of the national security of many countries.
I do not think that blocking social media applications will be useful as it is easy to bypass this ban. The same applies if the government decided to cut off the Internet from certain places.
The best they could do was cut off the internet from the places that the examination halls were next to, but this depends on the ability of the internet networks and the range of bandwidth allocated to them.

In short, it is the easiest solution.

[Sanitough]

It usually happen in our country as well, only have 2 ISP at the moment and our internet service provider does not provide the best service, however, if there are shut down, it's not due to government mandate or whatsoever, these shutdowns are cause by ISP maintenance.

For me which just mostly relies on internet, this is a big interruption so I'm actually hoping that our government will open more players for better services. As for me I am not so affected since I'm just using a p2p connection or sim based connection, using my modem I can shift to other network but it also cause a little delay for my job.