DIGITAL LIFE

Expansion of internet access slowing, study says

In June 2018, the internet reached the mark of 4 billion users. But that also means that 3.6 billion people are still out of the digital revolution. According to a report shared with the English newspaper The Guardian, these disconnected people are still far from online as there is a dramatic slowdown in the global growth of Internet access. Although more people have access to the network each year, the growth of access to it is decreasing. In 2007, the growth rate was 19%. Already last year it was 6%.The report, which is based on UN data, will be published next month by the Web Foundation, an organization created by the inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee - who recently created the Solid platform, to try to "fix" Internet deficiencies . For Dhanaraj Thakur, director of research at the Web Foundation, the world has underestimated the slowdown, and the low growth rate is troubling. "The problem of having some people online and others is not that you increase existing inequalities," he said.According to the report, of the 3.6 billion that remain disconnected, an alarming proportion are women. In poor urban areas, twice as many men have access to the network. According to the data, the persistent wage gap between men and women plays an important role in the digital divide between the sexes, but it is not the only factor. "Women are more likely to be left out because of economic inequalities and, to a large extent, social norms," ​​said Nanjira Sambuli, who leads the foundation's efforts to promote egalitarian access to the web. "In some communities, the whole idea of ​​women having something of their own, even a cell phone, is frowned upon."
The report also focuses on all missed opportunities for those without access to the network: "As our day-to-day lives become increasingly digital, these offline populations will continue to be pushed to the margins of society," it said. He points out that in addition to economic losses, unconnected people are barred from participating in online public debates, education platforms, social groups and simple means to access digital government services such as tax filing and identity card applications.One of the points raised by the report to justify this slowdown is the price of the internet. "It's not just about connectivity," said Malcolm Johnson, deputy secretary general of the UN International Telecommunication Union. "You have to make it worth it for people to pay for the connection. There has to be content that they can understand and that is clearly beneficial to them. "Many of the people who are offline today live in areas where access to the network is difficult, and therefore very expensive - such as sub-Saharan Africa. These high costs ended up disabling telecommunication service providers because communities could not afford the high prices, and the companies did not make a profit in those regions. Johnson believes that efforts to provide such access through new satellites or high-altitude balloons (now widely used for meteorology) can make a "huge difference."



Strange World Magazine-Brazil