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Data shows that growth in global internet access dropped from 19 per cent in 2007 to less than 6 per cent last year Photo: AFP

Digital revolution slipping further away from billions of the globe’s poorest, data shows

The rate at which the world is getting online has dropped since 2015. Data from the UN shows that women and the rural poor are the ones missing out

Internet

The growth of internet access around the world has slowed dramatically, according to new data, suggesting the digital revolution will remain a distant dream for billions of the poorest and most isolated people on the planet.

The striking trend, described in an unpublished report shared with the Guardian, shows the rate at which the world is getting online has fallen sharply since 2015, with women and the rural poor substantially excluded from education, business and other opportunities the internet can provide.

The slowdown is described in an analysis of UN data that will be published next month by the Web Foundation, an organisation set up by the inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

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The data shows that growth in global internet access dropped from 19 per cent in 2007 to less than 6 per cent last year.

“We underestimated the slowdown and the growth rate is now really worrying,” says Dhanaraj Thakur, research director at the Web Foundation.

“The problem with having some people online and others not is that you increase the existing inequalities. If you’re not part of it, you tend to lose out.”

The rate at which the world is getting online has fallen sharply since 2015. Photo: Nora Tam
As our daily lives become increasingly digital, these offline populations will continue to be pushed farther to the margins of society.
Web Foundation report

In 2014 the UN predicted that half the world would be online by 2017, but the slowdown means that line will not be crossed until May 2019, only months before the UN Sustainable Development goal of affordable internet access for all by 2020. The UN defines being online as having used the internet from any device in any location at least once in the past three months.

Had growth rates held steady near the 11 per cent average for 2005 to 2017, more than half a billion extra people would now be online. Of the 3.8 billion who remain unconnected, an alarming proportion are women. In poor urban areas, men can outnumber women on the internet as much as two to one.

Beyond missing out on economic opportunities, people who are unconnected are cut off from online public debates, education, social groups and the means to access digital government services such as filing taxes and applying for ID cards.

“As our daily lives become increasingly digital, these offline populations will continue to be pushed farther to the margins of society,” the report states.

Malcolm Johnson, deputy secretary general of the UN’s International Telecommunication Union, says 2018 data, to be released in December, is expected to show the slowdown continuing.

“Something different has to happen to change the trend,” he says. “We need much cheaper connectivity and there has to be more work done on content to attract people.”

Of the 3.8 billion who remain unconnected, an alarming proportion are women. Photo: Alamy
Women are more likely to be left out because of economic inequalities and to a great extent social norms.
Nanjira Sambuli

Many of those offline are in areas that are difficult, and therefore costly, to hook up to the internet. The expense puts telecoms providers off because the communities are those least able to afford the high prices.

At the same time, the internet may have little appeal for people in the world’s most remote regions. Even if they can afford the mobile phone and data costs, they may lack the skills to go online, and find little interest in the content, as well.

“It’s not just about connectivity,” says Johnson. “You have to make it worthwhile for people to pay to connect. There has to be content they can understand and is of benefit to them.”

He says efforts to provide internet access through new satellite constellations or high-altitude balloons could make a “huge difference”.

The persistent wage gap between men and women plays a large part in the digital gender divide but is far from the only factor.

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“Women are more likely to be left out because of economic inequalities and to a great extent social norms,” says Nanjira Sambuli, who leads the Web Foundation’s efforts to promote equal access to the web. “In some communities the whole idea of women owning anything of their own, even a mobile phone, is frowned upon.”

She adds: “It’s a stark reminder that technology is not a silver bullet that is going to solve inequalities that exist and have continued to exist because of real factors that need to be addressed. These are challenges that have been kicked down the road.”

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