Disconnection for protection (D4P): an addition to the disconnection repertoire

• Published in: Media, culture & society Vol. 43; no. 6; pp. 1147 - 1157
• Main Authors: Rohman, Abdul, Ang, Peng Hwa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-09-2021; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Disconnection; Information sharing; Motivation; Protection; Usefulness; misinformation; Internet disconnection; disinformation; Internet connection; Internet shutdown; digital authoritarianism; conflict; Indonesia
• ISSN: 0163-4437; 1460-3675
• DOI: 10.1177/01634437211022689

This article responds to Crosscurrent articles (Treré et al., 2020) published in this journal by positing the potential usefulness of Disconnection for Protection (D4P) for calming unrest and managing volatile times. We first use a vignette from Ambon, Indonesia, to illuminate the need for D4P to throttle the spread of mis/disinformation during a communal violence and then discuss the existing repertoire of disconnections. Building on this, we propose temporal/spatial context, information flow, externality, and motivation as constitutive elements of D4P. We elaborate on their terms and conditions and suggest research directions at the end.