Social networks: what life is like without being able to use them – 02/06/2024 – Tech

“We know that Facebook, Instagram and YouTube exist, but we don’t have access. Here, they are all blocked,” says Byashim Ishanguliyev, a fruit seller in Turkmenistan, one of the most closed countries in the world, where the state almost completely dominates the internet. .

Going over these prohibitions in this hydrocarbon-rich former Soviet republic in Central Asia is a veritable obstacle course.

“Some people are able to connect to a VPN, but it’s temporary (because) it will also be blocked,” said Ishanguliyev, 19, at a market in the capital, Ashgabat.

“The internet is slow, so if someone manages to download an interesting video, clip or film, we all watch it together (with friends)”, reports the young man.

However, for the country’s president, Serdar Berdymujamedov, these drastic measures are not enough.

In mid-January, the leader announced his intention to “strengthen the country’s cybersecurity”, following in the footsteps of restrictions imposed by his predecessors — his father Gurbanguly Berdymujamedov and former president Saparmurat Niazov, now dead.

The main messaging services are banned: there is no WhatsApp, Viber, Signal or Telegram. As a replacement, the government created an application, Bizbarde, under its control.

For online videos, authorities launched Belet Video, a kind of YouTube alternative filtered from any content that could reveal the outside world to Turkmen, be it news or entertainment.

No options

“There is no media panorama”, summarized the writer of the information website Turkmennews, Ruslan Miatiev, to AFP. The portal is banned in your country.

The Turkmen only see “propaganda to promote the cult of personality of the Berdymujamedovs”, commented the journalist, currently living in the Netherlands.

“And to prevent this parallel reality created by the media from collapsing, governments block the internet”, he guaranteed.

Turkmen media outlets, all state-owned, only publish official information, with special emphasis on thanks and praise for the country’s authorities.

Yusup Bakhshiyev, a 38-year-old employee from Ashgabat, had access to more foreign channels via satellite. However, he says it is now impossible.

“City hall employees came to my house and told me to remove the antenna because it was ruining the city’s architecture,” he recalled.

Afterwards, he registered with Turkmen cable television. “With this, the State controls the information and receives revenue from the subscription”, he pointed out.

Some Western networks such as France 24, BBC and Euronews are authorized, but their audience is scarce in a country where English is little spoken.

“Worst of the worst”

Every day, Turkmens watch programs in which Berdymujamedov reprimands his ministers, plants trees in the desert or receives applause.

His father Gurbanguly, the “protective hero” (Arkadag) and “head of the Turkmen nation” with great prerogatives, becomes increasingly eccentric with his personality cult.

Sometimes it gets to the point of absurdity. Arkadag newspaper once reported that Arkadag (Gurbanguly) traveled to Arkadag (a city founded in his honor) to congratulate the victorious players of the Arkadag team.

The American NGO Freedom House, which analyzes civil and political liberties, classified Turkmenistan in the “worst of the worst” category with a score of 2 out of 100, even lower than North Korea, with 3.

Turkmenistan also occupies one of the last positions in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking.

But none of this worries Oksana Shumilova, an employee at a construction company in Ashgabat, who is delighted with the country’s stability.

A subscriber to the newspaper “Neutral Turkmenistan” (in literal translation), with the inevitable photo of the president on the cover, she assures AFP that she feels a “sense of stability and tranquility”, because “there are no critical articles or negative information”.