[Chapter-delegates] Egypt blocking Facebook & Twitter

Sat Jan 29 07:09:12 PST 2011

Hi all,

the big shift that we are witnessing with the disconnection of 
telecommunications and Internet access in Egypt is that finally a 
government has quite explicitly (for all we know) decided to go for the 
"kill switch" and operated it.

We thought it would require great daring and now someone actually dared.

The risk-management equation for the Internet as a whole has changed, 
maybe irreversibly.

We will have much work in the aftermath of what's going on in Egypt. One 
part for sure will be a damage assessment. RFC 1591 reminds us that 
keeping the Internet running in a territory is a responsibility before 
both the local and the global Internet community. Amassing evidence on 
both sides will be vital to support the argument that you don't cut off 
the Internet much more than you dry the sea.

We will also have to work through the clouds of confusion in the debates 
about the contribution of the Internet, or rather specific services like 
Facebook and Twitter, and non-Internet telecommunications like SMS, to the 
uprising in Tunis and the ongoing situation in Egypt. These are 
higher-layer issues than physical connection and signalling and we tend to 
have less of a body of work in those layers. Let's make sure ISOC is not 
late to that party. We would be debating the recent publications of 
Malcolm Gladwell and Evgeny Morozov on one side, Clay Shirky on the other, 
and a very productive line of analysis which I see represented by Zeynep 
Tufecki in this field. They've sort of just passed above our (collective) 
head somehow.

Oh and I'll gladly join whoever bemoans the demise of the ISTF...

Yours,

Alejandro Pisanty

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .  .  .  .  .  .
      Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
UNAM, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico

Tels. +52-(1)-55-5105-6044, +52-(1)-55-5418-3732

* Mi blog/My blog: http://pisanty.blogspot.com
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On Sat, 29 Jan 2011, Christian de Larrinaga wrote:

> Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 13:42:41 +0100
> From: Christian de Larrinaga <cdel at firsthand.net>
> To: Franck Martin <franck at avonsys.com>
> Cc: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org, patrick at vande-walle.eu
> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Egypt blocking Facebook & Twitter
> 
> Incidentally I don't want to ascribe the same motives to those promoting disconnection polices in the US, UK and similar nations to those in countries where political censorship is the motive.
>
> But I do think that the deep societal implications of disconnection are not understood and the likelihood of crude implementation of such policies will make things worse. Crude because we do not have the policing, judicial and oversight institutions in place to manage these things sensitively leading to inevitable collateral damage.
>
> On rights.
>
> Do you define and so tie up the Internet processes including IETF, W3C with keeping innovation to what it is legally defined to be?
> Do you by making such a definition encourage service providers to offer services that are outside that definition so as to avoid human rights legislation?
>
> Can you provide a right of access to unfettered communications?  (within a legal framework) when you don't have universal network connectivity?
>
>
>
> Christian
>
>
> On 29 Jan 2011, at 13:15, Franck Martin wrote:
>
>> There used to be an initiative from the French and Dutch government to make the Internet an fundamental Right in a democracy... I spoke about it earlier...
>>
>> Seems ISOC HQ was not interested at the time...
>>
>> Franck Martin
>> http://www.avonsys.com/
>> http://www.facebook.com/Avonsys
>> twitter: FranckMartin Avonsys
>>
>> Check your domain reputation: http://gurl.im/b69d4o
>>
>>
>> From: "Christian de Larrinaga" <cdel at firsthand.net>
>> To: "Franck Martin" <franck at avonsys.com>
>> Cc: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org, patrick at vande-walle.eu
>> Sent: Sunday, 30 January, 2011 1:09:05 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Egypt blocking Facebook & Twitter
>>
>> It is notable that the debate politically has moved since the banking crisis from an open Internet to domain name seizure and now physical and signalling disconnections and not just in Egypt, but in UK, USA, Europe and so on.
>>
>> The implications of damage to the economic, societal and political life in and between countries if such a policy were to be implemented are simply unfathomable. Perhaps the Egyptian situation may give cause for pause. I hope so.
>>
>> I see from the article that Lynn is in Davos. This gives an opportunity to press the point that such policies are liable to increase instabilities not just locally or regionally but in the case of US, UK and other highly connected countries globally. Egypt is not an example to follow. It is an important message.
>>
>> Local disconnections imply global disconnections. It is a foreign policy and world trade issue not simply one of internal security.
>>
>>
>> Christian
>>
>> On 29 Jan 2011, at 12:39, Franck Martin wrote:
>>
>> http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/01/how_governments_can_flip_the_i.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>