Following boycotts of telecommunications services last month in Lebanon, in nearby Jordan activists have been urging mobile users to “turn off your phone line.”
The hashtag has taken over social media as Jordanians protest a proposed monthly fee for the use of applications allowing free calls across the internet. Such apps providing “Voice over Internet Protocol” services, which include WhatsApp and Viber, are already banned in the UAE.
Expressing their opposition to the suggested two dinar ($2.80) monthly fee, many in the kingdom have pledged to remove their simcards or turn on airplane mode for a 24-hour period on Wednesday.
Done#قاطع #سكر_خطك pic.twitter.com/KV2vQ7Wm1W
— Nashat (@nashat_hj) January 31, 2017
غداً ... اعتذر عن قبول المكالمات
— ُ (@DohaTahhan) January 31, 2017
غداً ... سأعود إلى حقبة التسعينات من القرن المنصرم
غداًيوم بلا تكنولوجيا غداً...انا مقاطع
#سكر_خطك #الاردن
Tomorrow... I apologize for [not] accepting calls... Tomorrow I will return to the era of the nineties in the last century... Tomorrow is a day without technology... tomorrow I'm cut off.
شكلنا بكره بس نسكر خطوطنا #سكر_خطك pic.twitter.com/mD0wF1szdJ
— كوكو عاشور (@ishraq_alomar) January 31, 2017
What we’ll look like tomorrow as soon as we turn off our phone lines.
دولة مش قادرة مالياً تخفض تكاليف الاتصالات بس قادرة تزيد مخصصات النواب والوزراء مليارين ونصف ليرة سنوياً #سكر_خطك
— عباس زهري #سكر_خطك (@zahriabbas2) January 31, 2017
A state which is financially unable to reduce communication costs but is able to increase allocations to MPs and ministers by two-and-a-half billion pounds annually.
Tag your friend who is going to take part and turn off his phone line tomorrow, and say to him you are brave and free!
However, one Jordanian Facebook user, Zaidoun Karadsheh, questioned the efficacy of the boycott in a widely shared post:
In his tongue-in-cheek message, Karadsheh suggests that for the majority of customers who have prepaid simcards, such “boycotts” will in fact only benefit the companies. He goes on to criticize campaigners for targeting providers he suggests support the development and economy of Jordan.
If you really wanted to boycott them, he concludes, then you have to refuse to top-up at the end of the month.
An estimated three million Whatsapp users in Jordan would be affected should such a fee be put into place. However, experts have suggested that such a monthly charge for internet voice calls would be nearly impossible to successfully implement, according to the Jordan Times.
RA
