As most governments around the world confront the coronavirus crisis and are trying to do whatever that is needed protect their citizens and economies, dozens of others are seizing on the moment as an opportunity to crack down and consolidate their power.
Authoritarian leaders have all looked to take advantage of the outbreak and the ensuing chaos to give themselves extraordinary new powers, while elections get delayed or forced to go ahead. Security forces have been empowered to conduct brutal crackdowns, free speech has been censored, privacy has been eroded.
Here is a list of 30 countries that are taking advantage from the current situation and have subjected their citizens to oppression.
Russia Vladimir Putin has taken surveillance to a whole new level. The combined monitoring system would pull in data from: location tracking apps, CCTV cameras with facial recognition, QR codes, mobile phone data, and credit card records. The Kremlin is preparing to release the new plans early next week. An opposition party has already labeled the measures a “cyber-gulag” warning that the restrictions will remain in force even after the pandemic ends.
Cambodia Hun Sen’s emergency bill is a “recipe for dictatorship,” according to Human Rights Watch. The “Law on Governing the Country in a State of Emergency,” features provisions that will allow the government to censor all media and social media, monitor all telephone communications, and there’s even a catch-all provision to bring in any new law they can think of. And to no one’s surprise, the new powers won’t end when the coronavirus emergency is over. China China doesn’t really needs an excuse for a surveillance plan like Putin’s. But China did take the opportunity to impose a new color-coded surveillance app designed to say if a citizen was free to travel or not — and all the information the app collected went to the police.
The Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte ordered police and military personnel to “shoot dead” members of the opposition and protesters who object to his lockdown measures. Police have held people in dog cages for breaching curfew, while another police captain forced LGBTQ+ people to kiss in public and do a ‘sexy dance’ — all while streaming the whole thing live on Facebook. Humanity has left the chat. Uganda The government raided a shelter for LGBTQ+ people and took 20 individuals into custody, claiming they were violating rules on assemblies of more than 10 people. The incident marks a growing trend of excessive police brutality being used to enforce the strict lockdown in the country.
Poland The current regime is seeking to force through the presidential election next month, despite a ban on campaigning due to the health crisis — a move the opposition says highly favors the incumbent, President Andrzej Duda.
Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo has introduced draconian new powers that don’t even mention COVID-19 in the legislation. “The new law gives him a loaded gun to use as he pleases, especially in restricting people’s movements,” Ras Mubarak, an MP for opposition National Democratic Congress, told the BBC. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is a bit different. He has taken a more relaxed approach to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of a lockdown, Lukashenko is threatening his citizens’ lives by keeping the country open and advocating taking hot saunas, working the fields, and vodka, “to clean your hands and your insides.” But the president’s approach is not working, and the health ministry reported a spike in cases in the country this week. Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro isn’t putting up with anyone questioning his country’s preparedness to deal with the coronavirus. According to Reuters, authorities in Caracas have tried to arrest seven different critics of the government’s preparedness for the coronavirus. Thailand As the Thai king isolates himself in a luxury Swiss resort, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan Ocha can now arbitrarily impose curfews and censor the news media thanks to new emergency laws. Journalists have already been sued and intimidated for criticizing the government’s response to the outbreak. Chile The government’s decision to enact a “state of catastrophe” may have been a response to the coronavirus pandemic, but it’s had the added benefit for the country’s rulers of silencing raging dissent and protests by sending the military into the streets.
Bolivia Last month, Interim President Jeanine Áñez issued a decree that rights groups say is overly broad and allows the government to prosecute anyone who criticizes government policies, violating free speech protections. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the use of secret cellphone data to track the coronavirus outbreak. The highly personalized information, originally developed for counterterrorism, will be used by his internal security agency. Those who breach the home-quarantine rules face up to six months in prison. Netanyahu has also ordered all the courts to close, which means his own scheduled appearance to face corruption charges will be delayed. Bangladesh The government in Dhaka is cracking down on any criticism of its handling of the pandemic response. In recent weeks it has arrested at least a dozen people, including a doctor, opposition activists, and students, for their comments about coronavirus, most of them under the draconian Digital Security Act. Serbia Prime Minister Ana Brnabić approved a decree that gave the government total control over information during the crisis. Only after a reporter was arrested for coverage of the situation in a hospital in the city of Novi Sad, did Brnabić revoke the order. Myanmar Authorities in Myanmar have used coronavirus to expand information censorship by blocking hundreds of websites in the name of combating disinformation. But the block includes the websites of registered ethnic media agencies, including several in Rakhine State, where the government has already severely restricted internet access. Also, three street artists were arrested after influential Buddist hard-liners said an image portraying a grim reaper figure spreading the virus looked like a Buddhist monk. Kenya Activists have raised serious concerns about the new powers police have to enforce lockdown measures in Kenya. These concerns were heightened when a teenage boy looking out from the balcony of his home was shot and killed by police enforcing a curfew. Police have also fired tear gas at ferry passengers and have been filmed hitting people with batons. Paraguay People violating quarantine rules were made to do star jumps and threatened with a taser. Others were asked to repeat “I won’t leave my house again, officer” while lying face down on the floor. Videos of the punishments were praised by the country’s interior minister “I congratulate them. I don’t have the same creativity as those that are making the videos,” he said. Turkmenistan The country is taking a unique approach to the pandemic: ignoring it. Despite neighboring Iran suffering huge casualties, Turkmenistan is one of the last countries in the world to have no reported cases of coronavirus. President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov instead is reportedly directing police to arrest citizens who publicly discuss the pandemic. Egypt In Cairo, where President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been accused of downplaying the extent of the coronavirus outbreak, the government revoked the credentials of two journalists for reporting on Canadian epidemiologists who estimated Egypt’s coronavirus infections had surpassed 19,000. Hungary Victor Orban has really taken advantage of the emergency situation. Not only did he introduce legislation that allowed him to rule by decree but he also forgot to put a sunset clause in the legislation, meaning only he can decide when his new powers come to an end. Yemen President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi is taking a novel approach to fighting coronavirus: stopping newspapers from being published. United Arab Emirates The Gulf News reported last week that “people who circulate rumors may be jailed for one year if they spread false information.” Rights activists now worry that COVID-19 could be used as a pretext to imprison some of the bloggers and Internet activists who are targeted by the State Security Apparatus (SSA). Iran In the midst of this crisis, the government launched an app that claimed to diagnose coronavirus but instead sent users’ real-time location data to the Ministry of Information — without any explanation of what the data would be used for, who would have access to it, and how long it would be stored for. Armenia The Parliament in Yerevan last week approved a new law that gives authorities very broad surveillance powers to use cellphone data for tracking coronavirus cases. The law will also give the authorities access to confidential medical information related to people exposed to the virus. North Korea Kim Jong Un, like his counterpart in Turkmenistan, is opting for denial to deal with the pandemic. Officially, North Korea has had no infections and it has tried to seal its borders with the rest of the world to stop the spread of the coronavirus. However, there have been reports that hundreds of soldiers have already died from COVID-19 and with a health system ranked among the worst in the world, experts fear Pyongyang is ill-equipped to deal with the outbreak and Kim’s denials are making the situation much worse.
India India has been strongly criticized for the way it’s treated its tens of millions of migrant workers during the coronavirus lockdown, but more worrying for privacy advocates is the explosion of new apps designed to collect biometric data on citizens without any legal framework or oversight in place. One app being rolled out in Karnataka, a state in southwest India, forces people in home quarantine to upload a selfie every 30 minutes to ensure they are complying with self-isolation rules.