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

Avri Doria avri at ella.com
Sun Jan 30 18:34:53 UTC 2011


Hi,

I always recommend reference to the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm

19.2

Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

This is a binding instrument of International Law, derivative of the UDHR, which has been signed/ratified by most countries.

a.

On 30 Jan 2011, at 13:25, Marc Rotenberg wrote:

> A statement is appropriate. It would be good also if we
> could reference relevant international human rights
> norms, such as Article 12 (privacy) and Article 19 
> (freedom of expression) of the Universal Declaration
> of Human Rights.
> 
> Almost all countries have expressed support for these
> principles. They are also universal values.
> 
> it is not so much the attack on the Internet that should
> concern us; it is the attack on the freedoms enabled
> by the Internet.
> 
> Marc.
> 
> 
> On Jan 30, 2011, at 1:17 PM, Eric Brunner-Williams wrote:
> 
>> The statement could be as simple as "it is a bad thing", but this is a 
>> teaching moment.
>> 
>> Authoritarians with state power have choice of mechanism:
>> 
>> o the 2005 loss of public access to the net in Nepal involved making 
>> the fiber dark,
>> o the 2005 loss of public access to the net in 2005, and 2007 in Burma 
>> involved capacity restriction,
>> o the loss of public access to targeted content in the 2008 Pakistan 
>> Telecom attempt to restrict access to Youtube involved prefix 
>> (availability) announcement,
>> o the April "hijacking" of 15% of global traffic by China Telecom 
>> involved prefix (availability) announcement, and
>> o the current loss of public access to the net in Egypt involved 
>> prefix withdrawal (non-availability) announcement.
>> 
>> 
>> Something along the lines of "... attacks on the integrity of the 
>> global routing table, attacks on the confidentiality of data on 
>> regional links ... are contrary to the public interest".
>> 
>> Eric
>> 
>> On 1/29/11 8:32 PM, gbruen at knujon.com wrote:
>>> Agreed, great email
>>> 
>>> --------------------------------------------------
>>> 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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>>>> 
>>>> Visit the NARALO online at http://www.naralo.org
>>>> ------
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
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