A man takes a photo of Hillary Clinton as she walks on to the stage to accept her nomination from the Democratic Party for president on the final night, July 28, of the Democratic National Convention.
Technology developed to jam cellphones during the Iraq War may be getting deployed against journalists reporting on protests against the political establishment in the United States.
While police and
government surveillance of protests, including
monitoring of cellphone use, is well-documented,
efforts to block signals at protests remains an oft-repeated, but never proven, rumor.
It may be impossible to definitively prove that authorities are using cellphone "jamming" technology, but journalists working with both mainstream and independent media reported unusual difficulties accessing the internet during recent protests at the gates of the Democratic National Convention, consistent with the effects this very real technology could have.
During the protests outside the DNC, which I covered for MintPress News,
I experienced this personally, with my internet connection behaving suspiciously near the convention's security fences and entrance gates, often abruptly blocking my tweets and other communication. The same was true for every other journalist I spoke with who covered the protests.
"It's scary for me as a journalist because that's how state suppression of events occurs," said
Desiree Kane, a freelance journalist and direct action organizer who
covered the Republican National Convention for MintPress and also took part in protests in Philadelphia.
"That's exactly how it happens is you block communications of what might be going down," she added.
Comment: What exactly drives people to such behavior? We've seen a number of stories in the last few years of people engaging in cannibalism after or during violent episodes: