[Chapter-delegates] Statement: The Internet Society on Egypt’s Internet shutdown

Sun Jan 30 12:16:55 PST 2011

Veni,

thanks for coming out with these words.

The least we owe Tarek Kamel is the benefit of the doubt.

Any one of us who has had responsibilities in an organization knows they 
entail a renunciation of total freedom (as if it existed anyway) and some 
tough choices.

When several of us had the chance to talk with Tarek in Sharm el Sheikh, 
during the IGF, a year and a half ago, it was clear that he had both the 
Internet and a telecommunications agenda to push, and was combining them 
in a masterful way. He was on the progressive edge of his government's 
programs and actions.

Let's wait for the dust to settle before judging the person.

And, that notwithstanding, let's continue to push for an immediate, 
exemplary reopening of all communications in and out of Egypt, 
particularly the full restoration of all Internet services and the 
suspension of censorship and restrictions to access to services, 
information, and communications between people and organizations.

The seed of the kill switch must not get implanted.

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
* LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pisanty
* Twitter: http://twitter.com/apisanty
* Unete al grupo UNAM en LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/22285/4A106C0C8614

* Ven a ISOC Mexico, http://www.isoc.org.mx, ISOC http://www.isoc.org
*Participa en ICANN, http://www.icann.org
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

On Sun, 30 Jan 2011, Veni Markovski wrote:

> Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:10:16 -0500
> From: Veni Markovski <veni at veni.com>
> To: Anya Chambers <chambers at isoc.org>
> Cc: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] [windows-1252] Statement: The Internet
>     Society on Egypt~Rs Internet shutdown
> 
> I'd like to add a few personal* words here about the former minister of ITC 
> of Egypt, Dr. Tarek Kamel, former secretary of ISOC-Egypt.
>
> I know Tarek for many years, and I find his position in this whole crisis as 
> one that requires support from his other former ISOC Trustees and ISOC 
> chapter presidents.
> Tarek is widely recognized as the person who brought the Internet widely in 
> Egypt - first as adviser to the minister of ITC, then as a minister himself. 
> He has publicly and privately expressed support for the open development of 
> the Internet. He is co-founder of ISOC-Egypt. As his bio on the ISOC web site 
> (http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/board.php?id=35) says for these 
> early years of the development of the Internet in Egypt, "Kamel's work 
> extended into liberalization issues such as a tax reduction for ISPs as well 
> as a government/private sector partnership to serve the Egyptian Internet 
> community. He has actively participated in the establishment of community 
> centers in remote areas to bring the Internet to the have-nots."
> As a minister, he managed to change the policies in Egypt to encourage not 
> only wide Internet access in the country, but also to engage within the tough 
> Internet governance debates in a very positive way for the global Internet 
> community. I'd argue that thanks to his team, Egypt was one of the respected 
> countries in the Internet governance debates at the IGF, but also at the ITU, 
> including the recent ITU Plenipotentiary meeting in Mexico.
>
> While we don't know the facts as who requested the shutdown, I feel confident 
> in believing that this was not his decision. In a serious situation, in a 
> country which is under severe internal and external pressure, rulers often do 
> things, which are difficult to explain even days later, and certainly much 
> easier to explan after a few years. I have lived through similar 
> circumstances in Bulgaria, in 1989 and in 1997, and I could tell you (as 
> probably Khaled can share more recent memories) that situation changes 
> dramatically within days, even hours.
> I wish Tarek and his team, who have done so much good things for the 
> Internet, to survive the crisis (revolt, revolution, changes - you name it), 
> and continue to contribute for the development of the Internet in Egypt, the 
> region, and the whole world. Certainly lessons will be learned from the 
> action of the Egyptian government, and certainly we'll spend a lot of time 
> reflecting on not only what happened, but what can be done to avoid such 
> shutdown in the future.
>
> One thing, which might serve immediately as a lesson, is that a myth being 
> spread around in the last 10 years, that the Internet of a whole country can 
> be stopped by actions of ICANN should come to an end**. It is clear now that 
> the actions of one government are much more effective and can shutdown not 
> only the Internet, but also mobile communications immediately. That should 
> keep everyone alert on the perspective of having the Internet being governed 
> by governments. Because, no matter what we think, so far the Internet has 
> never been shutdown, even for countries that have been under UN sanctions, or 
> even for countries, that have been at war with UN- or NATO-lead coalitions. 
> And that's something we should see how to further study, research, and use in 
> our chapters' work.
>
> I hope that other chapter delegates, who have worked with Tarek, as well as 
> Lynn and other key staffers, would support Tarek - I believe that now more 
> than ever before he needs such a support.
>
> _____
> * - Personal means that this is not opinion of any of the organizations I am 
> associated or affiliated with.
> ** - I have had presentations in the past in Russia / Eastern Europe, where 
> I've been explaining how the Internet works, and what is the role of the DNS; 
> for the purpose of this email I won't write more, but the ccTLD is not the 
> vital link in providing Internet access to the users - the waves and cables 
> are.
>
> On 1/28/2011 14:38, Anya Chambers wrote:
>> 
>> Dear all
>> 
>> Please find below a statement from the Internet Society in response to the 
>> recent events in Egypt:
>> 
>> "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 cris
>> 
>> 
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