- 11/06/2020
- Category: Commentaries
Digital Dangers
While its precise patient zero is still a mystery, the report on “unusual cases of pneumonia” by the government of the People’s Republic of China to the WHO back on December 31st can be said to be the official start of the corona virus’s timeline in the international stage.[i] With the city of Wuhan being the site of the first death at the hands of the virus,[ii] The disease’s lethal character now roams and haunts the media. With this new vile phantom, the already globalized and interconnected world has to face its impact on the rapidly developing digital culture.
One of the impacts that coronavirus has over the world comes from its ability to force people to avoid outdoor activities, thus increasing the interest to find activities online, especially through consuming contents provided by YouTube and Netflix. While both appreciate the increased traffic toward their services, it becomes overwhelming overtime. Thus, YouTube and followed by Netflix, decreases their streaming quality to avoid further strain on the bandwidth.[iii] In a similar worry, PlayStation slows down its download speeds for game files while still retaining “robust gameplay”.[iv] They are afraid of the toll that gaming as social distancing will give to the infrastructure. From these cases, we can see how the dynamic duo of watching movies and playing games seems to be keeping themselves stable.
The second tech phenomenon that had their share of the impact include Apple, Microsoft, and Google’s manufacturing sector. Due to the slowing-down of economic production output within China’s manufacturing line since the trade war of last year and the coronavirus’ impact,[v] these companies are looking for a way to move their production line somewhere else. Apple, in particular – due to its entrenched relationship with both Washington and Beijing – found itself within a time of profound troubles since it is known to roll-out new phones each year. With Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose canceled, and its Foxconn manufacturing lines in china still possibly working without its normal capacity,[vi] Tim Cook’s industrial timeline seems to be shifting significantly for the foreseeable future.
The third phenomenon comes from how tech companies are conducting their counterattack against misinformation spread throughout the web. Facebook has been seen fighting false information, most notably from Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil. Facebook took down a video posted by Bolsonaro in which he claimed how “hydroxychloroquine is working in all places,” even though the drug is still undergoing testing.[vii] Twitter followed suit by removing two of Bolsonaro’s misleading tweets.
Things to improve
From the cases mentioned, we can relatively assess that the most significant problem comes from the issue of the economic impact of the pandemic and the spread of misinformation. Governments, as public servants, should be the ones most sensitive to understand which things need change and further assessment. Additionally, as citizens of the world’s governments, we have to take it upon ourselves to give input and make sure of the smooth sailing of global governance within a crisis of global disease. With this pandemic, there are two things we can improve on.
First, we have to take this pandemic as a reason to have more robust frameworks and preparedly coordinated global action. Phelan and Gostin in 2014 noted that “(on the issue of pandemics) global governance is inherently reactive.”[viii] Their analysis back in 2014 on the lack of proper international regulations on pandemics led them to the conclusion that “perhaps the major weakness in global health governance is its failure to ensure equity, justice, and global cooperation.” How disappointing would it be for them to know that six years later, the world stood mostly still on the issue? With world economies and transportation becoming easily connected and the coronavirus pandemic with the corresponding impact that it has on the world even with the help of technology, the imperative on frameworks and preventive measures seems to still be a great solution as ever as Phelan and Gostin have pointed out.
Second, it is important to note that the proliferation of misinformation has ridden efforts against deadly viruses before. During the early years of the HIV epidemic, misinformation was also widespread.[ix] Back then, there were false arguments, conspiracy theories, and denialism. Sadly today, political division more pronounced, and anti-science groups denouncing mainstream discussions,[x] it is now more critical than ever for governments to provide its citizens to give proper dissemination of information. To quote Areeb Mian and Shujhat Khan’s commentary on today’s pandemic:
“In the face of a pandemic, it is important for governments to be transparent and relay clear, honest information to the public. Public confusion leaves citizens unprepared for combatting a public health crisis. Additionally, it is dangerous for politicians to politicize this pandemic. At times like this, the message from government leaders needs to be consistent so that the public can regain trust in civil servants.”[xi]
Conclusion
The world and especially its government have to understand the increasingly important opportunity that technology has over a global disease such as this. It is not far-fetched that our experience in dealing with this virus will change our operational ‘crisis mode’ for years to come. Furthermore, while it is still uncertain whether we will get back to how things were, this experience has undoubtedly taken the importance and opportunities of technology to new heights within the global economic, political, and social context.
Author: Andja Karunia (Content Contributor at CfDS)
Editor: Amelinda Pandu Kusumaningtyas (Project Officer of Research CfDS)
Read more articles written by Andja Karunia
[i] Al Jazeera. (2020). Timeline: How the new coronavirus spread. Al Jazeera, [online]. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/timeline-china-coronavirus-spread-200126061554884.html
[Accessed April 3rd. 2020].
[ii] Brison Taylor, Derrick. (2020). A Timeline of the Coronavirus Pandemic. New York Times, [online]. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-timeline.html. [Accessed April 2nd. 2020].
[iii] Porter, Jon. (2020). YouTube joins Netflix in reducing video quality in Europe. The Verge, [online] Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/20/21187930/youtube-reduces-streaming-quality-european-union-coronavirus-bandwidth-internet-traffic. [Accessed 3 Apr. 2020].
[iv] Gilbert, Ben. (2020). PlayStation 4 download speeds are being slowed in Europe to ‘address internet stability concerns’ as more people than ever are online due to the coronavirus outbreak. Business Insider, [online]. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/playstation-4-downloads-slowed-coronavirus-internet-speeds-bandwidth-2020-3?international=true&r=US&IR=T. [Accessed April 2nd. 2020].
[v] Kharpal, Arjun. (2020). Apple, Microsoft, look to move production away from China. That’s not going to be easy. CNBC, [online]. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/05/coronavirus-apple-microsoft-google-look-to-move-production-away-from-china.html. [Accessed April 3rd. 2020].
[vi] Reisinger, Don. (2020). Growing coronavirus threat weighs on Apple. Fortune, [online]. Available at: https://fortune.com/2020/03/07/apple-coronavirus-iphone/.
[vii] Constine, Josh. (2020). Facebook deletes Brazil president’s coronavirus misinfo post. Tech Crunch, [online]. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/30/facebook-removes-bolsonaro-video/.
[viii] Phelan, Alexandra and Gostin, Lawrence O. (2014). Farewell to the God of Plague: Has International Law Prepared Us for the Next Pandemic? Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, [online] 15(2), 134-143. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43773636 . [Accessed April 2nd. 2020].
[ix] Mian, Areeb and Khan, Shujhat. (2020). Cooronavirus: the spread of misinformation. BMC Medicine, [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01556-3. [Accessed April 2nd. 2020].
[x] Ibid.
[xi] Ibid.
