Some 2.9 billion people still have never used the internet, and 96 per cent live in developing countries, a new UN report has found. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the estimated number of people who have gone online this year actually went up, to 4.9 billion, partially because of a “COVID connectivity boost”.
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Despite COVID-19 connectivity boost, world’s poorest left far behind: ITU
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In this week’s show, the worrying rise of internet blackouts to stifle dissent and why going green is a matter of survival for small firms. Also, the pandemic’s $2.4 trillion hit to global tourism, what new migrant worker numbers tell us about the world economy - and an alert over the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. That’s all coming up in this week’s UN Catch-Up Dateline Geneva.
The practice of shutting down internet and mobile phone access to stifle dissent has become “entrenched” and more sophisticated in a growing number of countries as governments seek to retain power, a top UN-appointed independent rights expert said on Thursday.
Improved Internet access and connectivity can do more than urban migration to provide better jobs and higher standards of living for the roughly 3.4 billion people living in rural areas, according to the latest World Social Report, published on Thursday.
UN-appointed independent human rights experts have called for urgent action in India’s Jammu and Kashmir, amid concerns of ongoing abuses against civilians there.
Although almost nine in 10 people in developed countries use the internet, in poorer regions, only a fraction of that number goes online.
That’s the latest finding from ITU, the International Telecommunications Union, which in a new report, highlights how more women than ever are missing out on potential digital gains.
Rising Internet connectivity has the potential to transform children’s lives for the better, but also makes them vulnerable to sexual abuse, online harassment and bullying, recruitment by extremist groups, and other risks, according to a new UN-backed report published on Tuesday.
For the first time, more than half of the world’s population of nearly 8 billion will be using the internet by the end of 2018, the United Nations telecommunications agency announced on Friday.