I mean we just learned out of nowhere that Facebook was about to launch a subsea cable.

That's Julie Owano and she's laughing because that subsea cable which seemed to come out of nowhere

will actually be one of the longest cables in the world.

At 37,000 kilometers, it will encircle nearly the entire continent of Africa.

In fact, Facebook is calling the whole cable project to Africa, and all of this came as news to Julie

even though she's an expert on how the internet can reach and reshape nations in

the global South. It's mind-boggling to imagine that Facebook is going to launch very soon this sexy cable, which is great.

I mean, I'm happy for them, but what type of discussion do they have with governments?

What did they trade with them?

As Executive Director of Internet Without Borders,

Julie argues that expanding Internet access

is not as simple as running a cable into a country.

It raises thorny questions around sovereignty.

Most of the infrastructure is located within territorial seas.

To build within the territorial sphere, you need to ask the sovereign for authorization.

And once government's grant authorization,

what might they ask for in return?

They ask you to have direct access to the infrastructure?

That's a big question.

And if they did so, what guarantee do you offer that human rights in general and rights of the users will be respected?

These are not academic questions. In 2019, governments in Africa shut down access to the internet on 25 separate occasions.

That's up 50% over the year before.

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