[NA-Discuss] Fwd: The Internet Society on Egypt’s Internet shutdown

[gbruen at knujon.com]

Agreed, great email

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From: "Eric Brunner-Williams" <ebw at abenaki.wabanaki.net>
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 4:30 PM
To: <na-discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
Subject: [NA-Discuss] Fwd: The Internet Society on Egypt’s Internet shutdown

> via Dmitry Burkov.
>
> We are following the current events in Egypt with concern as it
> appears that all incoming and outgoing Internet traffic has been
> disrupted. The Internet Society believes that the Internet is a global
> medium that fundamentally supports opportunity, empowerment,
> knowledge, growth, and freedom and that these values should never be
> taken away from individuals.
>
> The Internet Society considers this recent action by the Egyptian
> government to block Internet traffic to be an inappropriate response
> to a political crisis. It is a very serious decision for a government
> to block all Internet access in its country, and a serious intrusion
> into its citizens’ basic rights to communicate.  If the blockage
> continues, it will have a very detrimental impact on Egypt’s economy
> and society. Ultimately, the Egyptian people and nation are the ones
> that will suffer, while the rest of the world will be worse off with
> the loss of Egyptian voices on the net.
>
> However we are most concerned about the safety and security of the
> Egyptian people.  Alongside the rest of the world, we share the hope
> for a positive and lasting solution to the problems that have risen to
> the surface there.
>
> In the longer term, we are sure that the world will learn a lesson
> from this very unfortunate example, and come to understand that
> cutting off a nation’s access to the Internet only serves to fuel
> dissent and does not address the underlying causes of dissatisfaction.
>
> Text Ends.
>
> This is something that matters.
>
> The government of Nepal shut down network access in 2005.
> The government of Burma significantly reduced network access in 2005,
> and again in 2007.
>
> I attended the November 2008 ICANN meeting in Cairo, as did some other
> participants in NARALO.
>
> About 25 million people live in Cairo alone. When we were there
> two years ago a plurality, if not a majority of people I observed in
> domestic class hotels and malls had cell phones. WiFi hot spots were
> available all around the ICANN venue area, and more importantly, in
> central Cairo, the area that is shown on CNN and Al Jazeera today.
>
> Internet access is a big part of Egyptian urban society.
>
> As my friend Barry Shein, who also attended the Cairo meeting, writes:
> "I was curious about [Press Secretary Robert Gibb's characterization
> of the demonstrators as having middle class aspirations] having
> wandered around Cairo. The protesters looked to me like middle-class
> Egyptians as opposed to galabeah (sp?) wearing working class."
>
> I suggest that the NARALO leadership draft a statement on the public
> interest value of public network access, free of interruption, and
> also free of deep packet inspection, by governments.
>
> Eric
>
>
>
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