San Francisco Transit's Cellphone Shutdown During Protest Under Scrutiny
The most recent news of government officials attempting to preempt potentially violent protests by shutting down mobile communications isn’t coming out of Egypt or London – it’s coming from San Francisco.
Last week, officials from the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) agency turned off equipment relaying cellphone calls in and out of four underground train stations in San Francisco to disrupt a planned protest over a police shooting.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced this week that it is looking into the BART cellphone service block.
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Since the agency's move, there has been a growing debate as to whether the train system was stifling free speech or taking the necessary precautionary steps to prevent a public safety threat. Officials were concerned over protesters potentially engaging people on crowded station platforms near moving trains powered by an electrified rail, the Contra Costa Times reported.
Two BART directors from San Francisco want the agency’s board to schedule a public discussion and set a policy on whether and when the train system should be able to curtail cell phone service at stations, according to the Times.
"The board was told by staff that this was being done, not asked. The board should air this publicly," one of the directors, Tom Radulovich, said. "BART has managed to make this into a big free speech issue with national and possibly international implications."
The hacker group Anonymous called the agency’s move a violation of civil rights. On Sunday, Anonymous retaliated by defacing the BART website with their logos and released personal contact information of the site’s users.
About 100 protesters who were angered by the blackout marched on four San Francisco stations, prompting BART to shut them down in order to keep demonstrators outside. Cell phone services were not disrupted by the agency during that protest, according to the Times.
Meanwhile, unrest over the issue of government officials who either have implemented or are considering similar mobile shutdowns continues in other countries.
As the result of the London riots, British Prime Minister David Cameron recently told Parliament that the government needs to look into whether it would be right to stop people communicating via websites and other services such as social media when it is known that violence is being planned through such means.
Former American-backed Egyptian dictator, Hosni Mubarak, was globally condemned for blocking Twitter during the Arab Spring period of unrest.
