So @meileaben on twitter this morning notes:
Many #Zimbabwe Internet routes withdrawn around 9:30 UTC amidst civil unrest in the country. near-realtime on #RIPEstat here: https://stat.ripe.net/ZW #OpenNetworkIntelligence #ZimbabweShutdown
https://twitter.com/meileaben/status/1085118237157851136
wondering if anyone here has additional info on that. Looing at stat.ripe.net/ZW now it looks as though one (out of an original 18, current 9) ASN has recovered, but kind of curious as to what exactly happened there.
So Bloomberg notes that a number of ISPs were shut down to quell online protest
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-15/by-killing-the-internet-zimbabwe-kills-commerce-and-the-lights but are there no work-arounds available, if implemented?
sorry top posting,
yup whatsup doesnt work in harare.
phone circuits land ok though and checked ok
col
zimbabwe situation link below re telecom problems
https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/news/zimbabwe-telecoms-jammed-after-violent-protests-report/
I was back in Zim myself last month as well to see family children, internet was working well then inc whats up, mobile and adsl.
I wonder how they block social media sites/whats up, is it null routing on peering cores or filtering since did not see filtering in place from ZIM<>UK last month…
Colin
In Africa, the majority of connectivity happens over mobile networks. So
it's easy to "fix" it, since mobile networks have some of the most
advanced DPI's in any network.
For those not aware, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Zimbabwean president,
increased fuel prices from US$1.24/litre to US$3.11/litre for diesel,
and US$1.31/litre to US$3.31/litre for petrol. This is what led to
(violent) protests, and as such, networks being asked to shutdown services.
Mark.
Im confused as to what exactly happened and how it was implemented. I assume the government wanted to restrict access to sites like whatsapp, facebook, twitter, etc.,. So did they tell national ISPs/Mobile (strong-arm) to simply block access to those sites, or they did they tell them to completely shutdown and go dark until the protests were over. Im just curious as to how an ISP/Mobile would selectively block access under government influence, reason being... understanding how can help us think of ways to get around it.
For example, lets say the mobile networks null routed all traffic destined to twitter and facebook networks... not a complete IP shutdown. So a local citizen is using email from a local provider (non-gmail, etc.,.) and still has access to email, Twitter knows they are blocked in ZW, but they still try to email updates to this example citizen. If their networks are being null routed, they can simply deliver the email via an alternate network/platform.
The whole thing is very disturbing, I mean this is 2019 right? Not 1984...
-John
It's not unusual for networks to be shutdown, particularly during riots
and/or elections. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying
it's not unusual.
This happened during the recent elections in Uganda and Kenya, for example.
Typically, the operating licenses issued by the gubbermints to operators
provide for legal avenues by the gubbermint to shutdown services. It is
not the gubbermint's responsibility as to how this is implemented by the
operators, just that it be done.
In recent years, social media resources have been targets, so Facebook,
WhatsApp, Twitter et al. However, if the gubbermint takes a broader
approach, it's up to the operator to figure out how to do it. Failure to
comply can result in arrests, fines, jail or even revocation of the license.
All mobile operators have terribly advanced DPI infrastructure, so it's
not difficult to shut services down at a very granular level.
Operators that deliver services via terrestrial means also employ DPI
infrastructure, because selling bandwidth access by the Gig-loads is big
business :-\. So they, too, can implement shutdowns with a reasonable
degree of granularity.
Mark.
Im confused as to what exactly happened and how it was implemented. I
assume the government wanted to restrict access to sites like
whatsapp, facebook, twitter, etc.,. So did they tell national
ISPs/Mobile (strong-arm) to simply block access to those sites, or
they did they tell them to completely shutdown and go dark until the
protests were over. Im just curious as to how an ISP/Mobile would
selectively block access under government influence, reason being...
understanding how can help us think of ways to get around it.
For example, lets say the mobile networks null routed all traffic
destined to twitter and facebook networks... not a complete IP
shutdown. So a local citizen is using email from a local provider
(non-gmail, etc.,.) and still has access to email, Twitter knows they
are blocked in ZW, but they still try to email updates to this example
citizen. If their networks are being null routed, they can simply
deliver the email via an alternate network/platform.
The whole thing is very disturbing, I mean this is 2019 right? Not
1984...
It's not unusual for networks to be shutdown, particularly during riots
and/or elections. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying
it's not unusual.
This happened during the recent elections in Uganda and Kenya, for example.
Typically, the operating licenses issued by the gubbermints to operators
provide for legal avenues by the gubbermint to shutdown services. It is
not the gubbermint's responsibility as to how this is implemented by the
operators, just that it be done.
Would a service be viewed as the same as (layer2 connectivity to a out of country layer3/layer4 endpoint).
ie ip source out of country but connectivity layer in country ?
satcomms in effect but terrestrial based pvc with leaf router out of country.
Colin
Logically, Layer 2 services would not apply. But this is because
gubbermints are clueless about the differences between the various layers.
Mark.
However, like the Internet Off switch installed in the Pentagon after 911 (which shutdown the DNS Severs), you may find that you have to reboot the Internet so you can upload your Save the World video to Twitter ...
someone needs to tell Zim Gov that BACS-IP payroll needs IP connectivity to banks to pay gov employees otherwise....
Col