The Atlantic Wire - A recurring event in the Arab Spring was the shutting down of the internet by incumbent regimes, acts which were met with such outrage by the global community that they in part led the U.N. to declare internet access a basic human right. The Obama administration is now leading an effort to create a “shadow” internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use in the event that their government shuts down web access, as Hosni Mubarak's regime did in Egypt, and President Bashar al-Assad recently did in Syria. The New York Times describes the State Department's efforts, which vary from developing James Bond-worthy high-tech gadgets to uncovering cell phones hidden by borders. Here are some of the ways the U.S. is looking to safeguard internet access across the world.
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