Dear Arnaud and all,
The Board will make some clarifications shortly.
Thanks and Regards ...
Sunday Folayan.
Board Chair.
On 13/04/2017 13:26, Arnaud AMELINA wrote:
*English :*
Dear member of the community, What is the aim of the authors and the
initiators of this Article ???
Do they have the right to share a process that has not yet been
adopted externally, still coming from a member of the Board of
Afrinic, is unacceptable, is there no longer any limit In AFRINIC,
that the different leaders take their respononsibilities and remind to
the order the indelices
The name AFRINIC has been engaged in this article, even though the
subject in question has not yet ratified by the community of AFRINIC
or the BOARD.
*French :*
Chers membre de la communauté, Quel est le but visé par les auteurs et
les initiateurs de cet Article ??? <https://www.theregister.co.uk/>
Ont-il le droit de faire part d'un processus non encore adopté à
l'extérieur, venant encore de la part d'un membre du Board d'Afrinic
c'est innacceptable, n'y a-t-il plus de limite à AFRINIC, que les
différents responsables prennent leurs respponsabilités et rappellent
à l'odre les indélicats.
Le nom d'AFRINIC a été engagé dans cet article alors même que le sujet
en question ne soit ratifié par la communauté d'AFRINIC ou par le BOARD.
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No more IP addresses for countries that shut down internet access
Afrinic considers punitive policy for errant governments
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12 Apr 2017 at 19:54, Kieren McCarthy
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/Author/2886>
Governments that cut off internet access to their citizens could find
themselves refused new IP addresses under a proposal put forward by
one of the five global IP allocation organizations.
The suggested clampdown
<https://www.afrinic.net/en/community/policy-development/policy-proposals/2061-anti-shutdown-01>
will be considered at the next meeting of internet registry Afrinic in
Botswana in June: Afrinic is in charge of managing and allocating IP
address blocks across Africa.
Under the proposal, a new section would be added to Afrinic's official
rules that would allow the organization to refuse to hand over any new
IP address to a country for 12 months if it is found to have ordered
an internet shutdown.
The ban would cover all government-owned entities and others that have
a "direct provable relationship with said government." It would also
cover any transfer of address space to those entities from others.
That withdrawal of services would escalate if the country continued to
pull the plug on internet access. Under the proposal: "In the event of
a government performing three or more such shutdowns in a period of 10
years – all resources to the aforementioned entities shall be revoked
and no allocations to said entities shall occur for a period of 5 years."
The proposal was sparked by a recent increase in the number of
complete nationwide shutdowns of internet service – something that has
been a cause of increasing concern and ire within the internet
infrastructure community.
The start
The trend started during the Egyptian revolution back in 2011 when
authorities killed the entire's country web access
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/01/egypt_last_net_lost/> prior
to a big protest march. Employees of ISPs and mobile phone companies
reported troops turning up at their homes and pointing guns at their
families in order to enforce the shutdown.
Until then, many governments had assumed it was largely impossible to
turn off internet access to their entire nation. Soon after,
government departments educated themselves about AS numbers and
internet routing and started using their power to set up systems that
would allow them to order the shutdown of all networks from a central
point.
While some countries only used this ability in the more dire
circumstances – riots or terrorist attacks – shutdowns quickly started
being used preemptively and for political reasons.
Bangladesh switched off
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/18/bangladesh_shuts_down_its_internet_for_an_hour/>
its entire country's net connectivity prior to the sentencing of
former government leaders for war crimes. Then Iraq started shutting
down the entire country for several hours at a time in order to
prevent exam cheating
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/17/iraq_shuts_down_internet_to_prevent_exam_cheating/>.
While these were enormously frustrating, the shutdown typically lasted
only a few hours. But then Cameroon decided to cut off the internet
for weeks – and targeted specific communities. The country's southwest
and northwest provinces were taken offline following violent protests:
a decision that had a hugely damaging impact on its "Silicon Mountain"
startup zone, and also took down its banks and ATMs.
In India, the number and frequency of internet shutdowns has sparked a
new protest movement and website <http://internetshutdowns.in/> that
tracks them.
The situation has grown so dire that the United Nations got involved
and officially condemned
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/01/un_officially_condemns_internet_shutdowns/>
the practice at a meeting of the Human Rights Council back in July.
Despite opposition from a number of countries – including China,
Russia, India and Kenya – a resolution passed forbidding mass web
blockades.
Plan
The reality, however, is that there is nothing to prevent governments
from shutting down the internet and very little anyone can do in the
face of a determined push from the authorities.
But now the techies are fighting back. The Afrinic proposal has been
put forward by the CTO and the Head of IP strategy for Liquid
Telecommunications – a large pan-African ISP – as well as the CEO of
Kenya's main ISP Association. As such it is a proposal that many are
taking seriously.
"While the authors of this policy acknowledge that what is proposed is
draconian in nature, we feel that the time has come for action to be
taken, rather than just bland statements that have shown to have
little or no effect," they wrote, noting that "over the last few years
we have seen more and more governments shutting down the free and open
access to the internet in order to push political and other agendas."
Whether governments like it or not, they are reliant on the provision
of IP address to expand their networks and digital economy, and
Afrinic is the only organization that can realistically provide them.
If the policy does get passed, it would almost certainly act as a
strong deterrent for government ministers to shutting down internet
access.
But there are a wealth of problems with the idea, not least of which
would be the determination of what represents an internet shutdown.
The authors put forward a suggested definition:
An internet shutdown is deemed to have occurred when it can be
proved that there was an attempt, failed or successful, to
restrict access to the internet to a segment of the population
irrespective of the provider or access medium that they utilize.
That wording is likely to be very heavily scrutinized. And it would
require someone or group to make a determination that it has happened
– which would likely become a politically charged decision. And none
of that considers the fact that national leaders are unlikely to
accept punitive terms being placed against them by a third party.
In short, it is a huge political headache. But it may also be one that
only the internet community is capable to taking on and winning. The
next few months will see whether the 'net community in Africa is
willing to take on the challenge for the greater good. ®
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