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People in Senegal have been turning en masse to VPN services as they battle against a second wave of internet restrictions.

Proton VPN recorded an increase in sign-ups at 2,800% above the normal level, in fact, via its VPN Observatory since July 31, 2023. Internet access was restricted on that day, with TikTok being also blocked on August 2.

The move was intended as a means to limit the spread of "hateful messages" on social mediathe countrys communications minister said in a statement, Al Jazeera reported. This comes as opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was formally charged with fomenting an insurrection and criminal conspiracy, among other charges.

This was the second time the internet has gone dark in Senegal in the last three months amid political turmoilonce thought the best democracy in all of West Africa.

Authorities already cut mobile internet and access to the most popular social media in June amid protests over the sentencing of Sonko to two-year jail time on charges of "corrupting youth." A sentence that many citizens see as just the latest ploy to prevent him from running for the next election in February 2024. At that time, at least 24 people got killed, 390 were injured and more than 500 were detained during the clashes.

After six days of curfew-style shutdowns, mobile connections have been reported to be restored on Saturday, August 5. Yet, the use of virtual private network (VPN) and similar location spoofing software remains high in the region as such tools become "a vital piece of infrastructure" for Senegalese to keep accessing the open web.

"Proton VPN has seen a significant increase in use in Senegal over recent months," Antonio Cesarano, Head of Product at Proton VPN, told TechRadar.

"We saw two spikes last week, one following the Senegalese authorities' restriction of internet access in response to violent protests following the arrest of the opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, followed swiftly by a second spike after TikTok was blocked."

At the time of writing, the 2,800% spike in VPN downloads is still rising, explained Cesarano, as people look for alternative ways to work around internet censorship.

Despite not being useful in the event of a total internet shutdown, VPNs are the best way to bypass geo-restrictions and keep access to blocked apps and censored content. That's because the software works by spoofing your IP addresses to make it appear as though you're browsing from a completely different country within seconds. Even better, the software also encrypts all the data leaving your device for better security and privacy online, helping you protect yourself from oppressive governments as you unblock global news and media.

The latest surge in Senegal VPN usage followed a significant spike in VPN sign-ups across the country in June when authorities blocked people from accessing popular social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and YouTube. The cyber-revolution kept going on, though, as VPNs helped citizens to cut through the thick blanket of censorship wracking Senegal's social media.

Such spikes in VPN usage are, sadly, common nowadays as authorities increasingly clamp down on the open internet. Proton also saw similar trends appearing in Ethiopia, Turkey, and Pakistan this year alone.

"What's interesting is that in countries that have a track record of online censorship, people are starting to anticipate that, and are signing up to VPNs in advance of potential online blocks," said Cesarano. That's what occurred in Turkey during the last presidential elections, for example, as people feared an information blackout. A trend now echoed across Senegal.

"[In June] we saw a 100,000% increase in sign-ups, and we have seen increased use since then. That means that when the most recent internet blocks took effect, there was an already high existing user base due to previous censorship," explained Cesarano.

"For people in Senegal, VPNs are now looking to be a vital piece of infrastructure allowing them to access the free internet in the face of government censorship."

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VPN usage soars in Senegal amid a second wave of censorship - TechRadar

In 'Miles Morales Suspended,' Spider-Man grapples with racism and censorship : NPR's Book of the Day Miles Morales, the beloved protagonist of Jason Reynolds' Spider-Man novel, is back. And this time, he's dealing with in-school suspension for challenging his history teacher at an elite Brooklyn private school. But between writing poetry about his new crush and saving the world, the young, Black and Puerto Rican superhero also stumbles into some major themes about racism and censorship. Reynolds tells NPR's A Martinez how his newest novel is a response to the book bans taking place across the country and how he wishes it didn't have to be.

Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

Miles Morales, the beloved protagonist of Jason Reynolds' Spider-Man novel, is back. And this time, he's dealing with in-school suspension for challenging his history teacher at an elite Brooklyn private school. But between writing poetry about his new crush and saving the world, the young, Black and Puerto Rican superhero also stumbles into some major themes about racism and censorship. Reynolds tells NPR's A Martinez how his newest novel is a response to the book bans taking place across the country and how he wishes it didn't have to be.

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In 'Miles Morales Suspended,' Spider-Man grapples with racism and ... - NPR

The Health Professionals Association (HPA) of Sri Lanka cancelled strike action that was to occur on August 4. The stoppage had been called to demand that the health ministry withdraw a circular banning its employees from speaking to the media on issues related to the public health service.

The circular, issued on July 20, included a blanket ban on public health staff making any statements or expressing their views on the sector. It cited a Supreme Court ruling that state employees have no right to make comments to the press without prior approval from their departmental head.

The circular warned that violation of this regulation is punishable under the Establishment Code governing state sector employees. Disciplinary actions include warnings, suspensions or termination.

Justifying the cancellation of industrial action, HPA leader Ravi Kumudesh said that the ministry secretary, Janaka Sri Chandraguptha, had given a written assurance that the ban would not apply to the union and similar associations. It would, however, continue to apply to rank-and-file health employees, Kumudesh added.

In effect, the union has agreed to the ministry using the anti-democratic regulations to penalise health workers speaking about or exposing the collapse of the health sector, something that affects the lives of patients, employees and the population as a whole.

This censorship is an outright betrayal of the democratic right to freedom of expression. It underscores the role of the union as an industrial police force of the government and the corporations.

Last Monday, Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella defended the circular, saying: Some people are trying to use health as a very sensitive area to bring another agitation in the country. Without a shred of evidence, he cynically branded all comments circulating in the media about the worsening health crisis as false.

The attempt to silence health professionals, including doctors and nurses, is tantamount to insisting they breach their medical oath to serve their patients. They are forbidden from speaking about the consequences of the governments cuts, which have brought the public health system to the brink of collapse.

The Health Ministry circular was first issued in May 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, provoking anger among employees and the public more broadly. Former President Gotabhaya Rajapakse declared that responsible officials should not unnecessarily hold media briefings and panic the public about the pandemic.

In the same month, Rajapakse imposed the Essential Public Services Act on key government services, including health. This act bans all industrial action, with penalties including jail, fines and dismissal.

Last November, the health ministry suspended Dr Chamal Sanjeeva, president of the Medical Professional Association for Civil and Medical Rights, accusing him of causing inconvenience to the government by presenting false information to the media.

Sanjeeva had revealed to the press that in one region of the southern Hambantota district of Suriyawewa, 30 percent of children were suffering from severe malnutrition and 50 percent from mild malnutrition.

He told the World Socialist Web Site that the figures were based on a scientific survey, adding: It is my democratic right to reveal its results to people.

The circular was reissued last month amid mounting anger among health workers and the broader population. A number of deaths and serious illnesses have been reported in state hospitals that are thought to have resulted from low-quality drugs and injections.

On July 11, a 24-year-old woman died at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital after being administered a Ceftriaxone antibiotic injection. Similar deaths and more than 15 allergic reactions have been reported in Colombo, Kandy, Ragama, Nuwara Eliya, Kilinochchi and Panadura hospitals.

The State Medical Supplies division has been forced to remove 64 drugs and items of surgical equipment from use because of complaints from hospitals over their low quality. The lack of drugs and frequent malfunctioning of medical equipment is forcing the postponement of scans, dialysis and urgent surgery, including heart operations and kidney transplants.

Public anger has also been fueled by reports that pharmaceutical companies and ministry officials involved in importing low-quality drugs have engaged in corrupt practices and underhanded deals.

In a television discussion on July 11, Dr. Ananda Wijewickrema, a medical specialist at the National Institute of Epidemiology, said the health ministry was importing drugs not approved by the National Medical Regulatory Authority.

Health employees, patients and their relatives have spoken to the media, including the World Socialist Web Site, about the situation they confront.

A nurse working at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital said she and her colleagues are working in terrible conditions due to the lack of adequate staffing. Though it is necessary to do dialysis for kidney patients three times a week, it is happening only two times. In the Kandy National Hospital, it occurs only once a week.

She spoke about a death of a young girl at her hospital who had been administered a cefuroxime injection: Our colleague who administered this injection has been condemned on Facebook and is facing mental stress. It was not her fault. This is the only medicine available. Employees have to pay for the health crisis. Not a single trade union has come to her defence.

Instead, the unions have now agreed to the authorities using this anti-democratic circular against employees. Unions could use this circular to silence criticism of themselves.

A doctor at the Kandy National Hospital told the WSWS that there was a serious shortage of medical drugs earlier. The situation had improved slightly. However, because of the poor quality of these drugs, staff had to explain the situation to patients and ask whether they wanted to use them.

Those who have money can buy the relevant drugs from outside. What about the others? the doctor asked. We have been compelled to use these drugs as we are government employees. Because of the ministry secretarys circular we cannot explain this true situation to people.

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While the HPA leaders met with health authorities, other union leaders issued perfunctory statements or called limited protests to let off steam among angry workers.

On July 18, thousands of state health employees held demonstrations to oppose the regulations at key hospitals including the Colombo National Hospital and at regional facilities. Protesters displayed placards with slogans such as: Prevent the importation of inferior medicines, Patients lives are in danger, Stop the privatisation of health services, and Lets get rid of the dysfunctional government that takes the lives of patients.

This limited action was called by the All Ceylon Health Employees Union, which is controlled by the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The JVPs overriding interest is not the democratic rights of workers but to boost its bid to form the next government.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the deep crisis of the countrys health system, which was unable to cope with the deadly disease. Successive governments have provided a small allocation for public health in their annual budgetson average about 1.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Now, the government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe is implementing the austerity demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of which is to slash state expenditure, including on public health. At the same time, the government is taking steps to privatise health care and liquidate what remains of the free public health service.

The trade unions bear responsibility for the present crisis in the health sector. Since 2021, the unions have been forced to call more protests and strikes in the sector than in any other state institution. But those actions have been aimed at sowing illusions that the government can be pressured to make concessions.

Health employees must take matters into their own hands and form action committees independent of the trade unions and capitalist parties to defend their democratic and social rights. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is campaigning to build such action committees, democratically elected by workers in every workplace. We say:

This means billions of rupees must be allocated for public health. However, the Wickremesinghe government is intent on repaying foreign debts and boosting the profits of big business and investors at the expense of the working class.

The proper provision of resources for health, education and vital welfare programs is bound up with the broader struggle to reorganize the economy for the benefit of the vast majority of society. This requires the repudiation of all foreign debt and the nationalisation of the banks, large estates and big companies under the democratic control of the working class.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is fighting for these socialist policies and a workers and peasants government to implement them as part of the broader struggle for socialism in South Asia and internationally.

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Sri Lankan union agrees to government censorship of health ... - WSWS

Censors always have the best of intentions.

John Krull, publisher,TheStatehouseFile.com

They see themselves as our protectors, a shield that prevents harmful or dangerous ideas or pieces of art from finding their way through our moral and ethical defenses. They keep books and music and paintings away from us for our own good.

Because they consider their hearts and their motives to be pure, they take umbrage when we suggest that maybe, just maybe, we can be trusted to make up our own minds.

Or parent our own children.

Or develop our own tastes.

How, how, how can we be so ungrateful? How can we not appreciate the good they have done for us by making books and songs and art harder for us to find?

Thats what is behind the dustup with the Hamilton East Public Library, which has made national news by moving many popular young adultor YAbooks to the adult section. The library did so at the direction of the Hamilton East Public Library Board, which considered the works inappropriate for young people.

Among the books moved was John Greens The Fault in Our Stars, a novel that has proved to be a touchstone for young readers since the day it was published. Green, who makes his home in Indianapolis, protested when he heard about the move.

He said he wouldnt be caught alive or dead in Fishers until the policy was changed.

I know John Greennot well but well enough to realize he is one of the most decent guys around.

Once, I asked a favor of him. He just had been a guest on a radio show I hosted.

One of my daughters friends had been diagnosed with cancer. Cancer figures prominently in the narrative of The Fault in Our Stars.

I asked Green to sign a copy of the book for my daughters friend. He did more than that. He wrote a note to her inside the book, one filled with compassion and encouragement.

After that, I learned that such graciousness and generosity were common for him. He was, and is, devoted to young people, particularly those who read his books. He takes both their lives and their troubles seriously, which may be the reason that The Fault in Our Stars has sold, at last counting, nearly 25 million copies worldwide.

But because Green acknowledges in his work that teenagers think about and occasionally even have sex, the board membersnot the librarians, who are trained to guide readers of all ages, but the board members, who are notdecided his work was not appropriate.

And now those same board members cannot understand why Green has raised a ruckus about their policy.

They cannot figure out why a man who has devoted his career and his art to writing for and helping young people might take offense at the accusation that his books were bad for those same young people.

A few of the board members supporters even have suggested that Green took issue with the library boards policy just so he could sell some more books.

Yeah, right.

A guy who has sold more than 40 million books worldwide and has had several of his novels turned into successful movies really desperately needs the help of a public library in central Indiana so his work can find an audience.

No, what it comes down to is this.

Because the board members of the Hamilton East Public Library are pure of heart, they know better than John Green what young need.

They also know better than the 40 million young people who bought Greens books.

Or their parents.

Or their teachers, who have devoted years of training to understanding how young people think and live.

Or the librarians, who have undergone rigorous schooling and preparation to help them serve readers.

The library board members, untutored and untrained though they may be, are better suited to make decisions about what we read and what our children read than we or anyone else could be.

Because they are pure of heart and have nothing but the best of intentions.

As censors always do.

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Censors, not father nor mother, know best | Commentary ... - The Statehouse File

Over the last few days, a lot of the discourse surrounding Christopher Nolans latest has been about Oppenheimers box office and other internet momentum surrounding the Barbenheimer double feature phenomenon. But theres another discourse going around online about the movie, and it has to do with Florence Pughs nude scenes.

The actress has been a huge advocate of body positivity even before choosing to go nude in order to play Jean Tatlock in Nolans latest historical epic, but her scenes in the movie, which do feature lovemaking and intimate moments where the two characters have candid conversations while undressed, have faced backlash and even censorship in some countries.

In the movie, Pugh plays Jean Tatlock, a woman whom J. Robert Oppenheimer was intimately involved with before his marriage. the two met at the University of California Berkeley, where shed been taking courses toward her psychology degree and the scientist was in his thirties and on the faculty. Oppenheimer reportedly proposed to her more than once while they were dating, but the situation didnt work out.

As portrayed in the timeline of Christopher Nolans Oppenheimer, he was allegedly Jeans rock in times of emotional turmoil, but after he married Kitty Puening, she became more of an occasional mistress. In the movie, it is shown the two had one final meeting as the Manhattan Project was amping up at Los Alamos (and historical records confirm the real-life man visited her up until 1943). In the film, he said he needed to cut back on contact. She subsequently died by suicide in 1944.

Pugh's part in the movie is a small one, but it has made a large impact.

Pugh has been candid about being asked to lose weight for roles in the past, but she has not spoken out about people commenting on her body in the movie. However, Cillian Murphy was asked about filming the emotionally raw moments with the actress. He told the Sydney Morning Herald that the scenes where Pugh chose to go topless landed the movie its R-rating (for sexuality, nudity and language), but that they made so much sense in context.

Those scenes were written deliberately. He knew that those scenes would get the movie the rating that it got. And I think when you see it, its so fucking powerful. And theyre not gratuitous. Theyre perfect. And Florence is just amazing.

After the movie premiered, a lot of discourse has surrounded these scenes. On TikTok, various videos have dissected and upacked the nudity. Elsewhere, on Twitter some people have made critical comments about Florence Pughs body appearing in the movie unclothed. Other tweets have defended the actress, but its clear the topic has become a point of conversation thats spiraled a bit out of proportion.

This isnt the first time the actress has faced backlash for her body. Last year, she chose to wear a sheer Valentino dress that subsequently went viral because she freed the nipple. While the moment will likely live for a long time in fashion history, it prompted a lot of Internet comments. Pugh later responded to the Valentino backlash, noting:

I was comfortable with my small breasts. And showing them like thatit aggravated [people] that I was comfortable.

The comment from the actress was about the pink dress she wore to the fashion show, but it would be applicable in this situation as well. Yet the conversation around the nude scenes has only grown after varying countries began censoring it.

In some countries, Florence Pughs nude scenes dont exist at all. Instead, CGI was used to cover her up in a black slip in countries like India. Theatergoers in other locations, including Bangladesh and Indonesia, also reported attending Oppenheimer screenings in which the character of Jean Tatlock was fully clothed thanks to a slip that was created to appeal to the censors in those countries.

This strategy has allowed the movie to retain ratings closer to PG-13 (or whatever the countrys rating equivalent is, U/A in India, for example) rather than the R-rating the movie received in the U.S, and it has allowed the film to screen in certain countries with higher cultural sensitivities.

But between this and the online discourse, Pughs body has taken front and center in the Oppenheimer conversation, when really its her performance that should be highlighted. In fact, a lot of performances from the Oppenheimer cast should be highlighted, from Emily Blunt's quiet struggles and inner determination and strength, to Robert Downey Jr. chewing up scenes, to Cillian Murphy's deliberate and haunted presence. It's a movie that will stick with you for long after viewing, and there are a lot of themes and philosophical conversations that are more interesting to talk about.

This backlash is just the sideshow.

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Florence Pugh's Oppenheimer Nude Scenes: The R-Rating, The ... - CinemaBlend