BART shutdown of mobile services - sign of things to come

Last Updated on Tuesday, 16 August 2011 10:11 Tuesday, 16 August 2011 09:41

The increasing ability of the state to control people was evident on Monday evening when San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) shut down its mobile service to its underground in an attempt to disrupt protesters.

The protest was organised to highlight the case of Charles Hill, a passenger who was shot by a BART policeman after throwing a knife at police. Anonymous and human rights activists organised the protest. Whether you agree with them or not, that the state should attempt to control the communication between its citizens is a development worthy of Chinese levels of oppression.

The move smacks of an abuse of power and shows up the danger of allowing the state too much control. When protests and rioting broke out in China in 2010, the government effectively sealed off entire neighbourhoods and towns, cut communication lines and prevented word of the uprising spreading to nearby population centres. That gave the authorities time to break some legs, smash some teeth and generally ensure that its citizens came round to the 'correct' way of thinking.

The uprisings across the Middle East have faced the same pattern. Communication with the outside world are the first thing to go, followed by an attempt to seal neighbourhoods so that the authorities can deal with the trouble makers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) likened BART's move to that of disposed Egyptian dictator Hosni Sayyid Mubarak who's first move when faced with protests was to cut communication lines.

What occurred in San Franciso's underground is a microcosm of that - an authority shut down communication in an attempt to disrupt the plans of protesters and throw their protest into disarray. What next? If BART doesn't like the way you complain it will disable your iphone? Will London City insist it has the power to bring down mobile services in the event of a future protest? Will Washington demand the power to grant/remove communication services depending on how obedient the citizens are behaving?

So far, the cell carriers have refused to confirm or deny if they were complicit in the shutdown or if BART simply acted of its own accord. But in any case, the move smacks of the creeping control the state exerts over the lives of its citizens. You have to wonder, just how much power rests with the citizens when communication between them can be controlled by the State?