These network operators are having to deal with really bad days! "At gunpoint, they ordered technicians at telecom operators to switch off the internet." A whole other level of 'bad day' than we have to deal with!
"The method of choice is to decouple website addresses from the series of numbers a computer needs to look up specific sites, a practice akin to listing a wrong number under a person’s name in a phone book." I am assuming they mean they are putting false info in the DNS. ?
Well, for strongly held religious beliefs, some may be convicted enough to be a martyr.
For internet connectivity? Likely not.
Scott, are you saying that employees of Telenor and Ooredoo are “facilitating violent repression” by following the orders of soldiers holding guns to their heads?
My understanding of the rules of nano guess that there is to be no “naming and shaming“. please retract your post.
-mel beckman
First you say "not at all" and then you say "stop complying". If your
employees stop complying with the orders coming from the angry men
with guns held to said employees' heads, someone's going to get shot -
and it's going to be the telecom employees. That's significantly more
than a financial hardship and I cannot grasp how you think it could
possibly be otherwise.
scott <surfer@mauigateway.com> writes:
Telenor and Ooredoo, it's time to do the right thing.
Wrt Telenor, please see the info posted at
https://www.telenor.com/sustainability/responsible-business/human-rights/mitigate/human-rights-in-myanmar/directives-from-authorities-in-myanmar-february-2021/
Bjørn
It should be noted that Telenor has been one of the nationwide license holders for 3GPP cellular bands in Pakistan for a long time, and has encountered the same issues with regional network shutdowns, and government orders to block certain netblocks or services.
Not to the same extent as what’s going on right now in Myanmar, but absolutely it meets the definition of what a (western European, North American) person would consider to be unconscionable and unwarranted government Internet censorship and interference with telecoms.
They’ve shown no signs of pulling out of Pakistan or making operational changes as a result of this, over the past ten years. My personal opinion is that Telenor (PK) has weighed the risks, and judged that they possess neither the political capital, influence or leverage to ignore the government’s occasional Internet shutdown orders.
“Westerners” might be surprised to learn the extent that some of the major international/developing-nation specialist 3GPP carriers seem to be quite fine with operating in non-democratic regimes and bending their telecom’s operational policies to suit local laws. In particular I’m thinking of the above Telenor example, but also MTN in many nations in Africa, Orange, and Airtel, in their operations in many different nations.
Then on the other hand you have telecom entities which originate from highly censored political systems, one of the other 3GPP band operators in Pakistan (Zong) is owned by a Chinese domestic telecom company.
(I’m sure i’ll regret this, but…)
It should be noted that Telenor has been one of the nationwide license holders for 3GPP cellular bands in Pakistan for a long time, and has encountered the same issues with regional network shutdowns, and government orders to block certain netblocks or services.
Not to the same extent as what’s going on right now in Myanmar, but absolutely it meets the definition of what a (western European, North American) person would consider to be unconscionable and unwarranted government Internet censorship and interference with telecoms.
So, what would be the correct set of actions here (for a company)?
it sounds like some version of the proposal is:
“Pull up stakes, stop offering services in places that may/do impose ‘draconian’ methods of ‘censorship’”
(note intentionally quoted draconian/censorship - I don’t mean/want to put a value on those words)
or perhaps:
“Lobby the gov’t(s) in these situations to NOT do the things they keep doing”
or finally:
“refuse to comply with requests/orders from govt(s) to do these things”
I think the last is ‘impractical’, I expect the 1st is also a tough pill to swallow for a large multinational telcom… the middle may already be being done, but is unlikely to help.
So, aside from: you ought not do that!</waggy finger> from the sidelines… what should a responsible Corpo do?
None of them are a good option. In the specific case of Pakistan, the periodic shutdowns and blockages have been ‘moderate’ enough, if that’s an appropriate word to use, that most of the time, Telenor’s customers have ordinary Internet service. Over the long run it is probably a benefit that its customers have their LTE data services.
Within that specific example I should also note that there has been very little effort put on a nation-wide scale to implement technology which can do DPI and drop/blackholing of VPN traffic. Even though the Internet traffic for the country runs through a few choke points, there does not appear to be government-operated technical capability or the budget to implement something on the scale of the great firewall.
There’s plenty of non technical teenagers in Pakistan with VPN clients on their phone or laptop who seem perfectly capable of using a VPN to watch Youtube or access Twitter and other social media, during the periods of time that the government orders things to be blocked.
Along with all feasible attempts at lobbying, I would propose a 4th alternate to the scenarios outlined, which is to provide funding and financial support (from a telecom’s headquarters in Europe or the USA) for civil society institutions and non-profits related to bypassing Internet censorship, and lobbying against it. Such as the EFF, funding for the tor project, supporting the work of various GPL/BSD licensed VPN technologies (openvpn, wireguard, etc) and their continuing development, etc.
Hi,
There's plenty of non technical teenagers in Pakistan with VPN clients on their
phone or laptop who seem perfectly capable of using a VPN to watch Youtube or
access Twitter and other social media, during the periods of time that the
government orders things to be blocked.
Even my third-grader was able to figure out that she needed a VPN when I blocked Roblox's IP space (128.116.0.0/17) on my home router.
Other than, as reports said, soldiers snipping cables in datacenters, regimes will have a difficult time completely blocking whatever they don't like. Even China can't do it.
Thanks,
Sabri
Censorship does not need to be complete to be highly effective. Almost all regulation, drugs/speeding/etc, is designed to increase the cost to the point were “most” individuals are discouraged. While VPNs can be used to bypass China’s Great Firewall the added friction is enough to keep most happily engaged with easer distractions.
Censorship does not need to be complete to be highly effective. Almost all regulation, drugs/speeding/etc, is designed to increase the cost to the point were “most” individuals are discouraged. While VPNs can be used to bypass China’s Great Firewall the added friction is enough to keep most happily engaged with easer distractions.
I’m glad someone noted this…
I’d also say that it seems to me that the restrictions are a LOT like ‘seatbelt laws’ in the US, where most states enforce as a secondary action:
“Oh you were speeding AND you aren’t wearing a seat belt, bonus fine”
(note: I’m a seatbelt user, just using this as an example)
and that the censorship COULD be used as a further action for repressing folk:
“Oh, you came to our attention for <free speech|having a sign|walking around at night aimless| selling a single cigarette>, oh and you’re using a VPN to get around #dearleader’srestrictions?? max fine”