[kictanet] PRE KIGF ONLINE DISCUSSION DAY 1 - INTERNET SHUTDOWNS

[Andrew Alston]

Hi There,

What follows are my personal views…

To question (a) –

I would phrase the question differently.  Is there a fear that there may be an attempt to shut down the Internet in Kenya – 100% I would say that there may be such an attempt or a call for such at some point in the future – and I would say the same applies in most countries.   However, the bigger question is, would it actually succeed, and that is where I think there is much more room for doubt.  The only way for such a shutdown to happen would be through orders that I think would get challenged in court and would probably get tossed pretty quickly – the Kenyan constitution has a lot of things to say about rights and I think it would be pretty tough to make a case strong enough to violate the rights of millions of people and have the courts agree with it. (well, I like to believe that!).
Secondly – shutting down the Internet is something we need to define in terms of this question – to evaluate the likelihood of it happening.  Look at it this way:


a.)     Could there be an attempt to order the shutdown of social media – yes – but that raises the question about which providers have the facility to differentiate social media vs other content.  In the case of mobile providers this differentiation capability may well exist and it could be a fairly simple process.  In the case of a wholesale provider who believes that packets are packets and does not get involved in what content is inside those packets, it becomes a very different story.  In the former case – an instruction to shut down social media may be enough if the mobile provider felt threatened enough to comply.  In the latter case – it may well force a showdown of shut down *everything* or shutdown *nothing*, and shutting down everything could be very risky – because it may well have international implications on traffic flowing *through* the country rather than traffic just in the country.  (And this is why the argument for net neutrality is so important, the more providers invest in technologies to zero rate, to do deep packet inspection, to examine what traffic people are using and where, the more facilities they put in place to allow them to be ordered to screw with particular types of traffic)

b.)    Could there be an order to shutdown EVERYTHING – well – there could – but I have serious doubts about such an order succeeding – because of the wider ramifications of it.

To question (d) – that would very much dependent on who shut down what and who resisted it.  If it was social media that was blocked for example – it would not take very long to bypass the blocks through use of a million and one technologies available to do so – as has been done the world over when this stuff has been tried before.  Anyone who believes that these options are only available to the tech savvy is also… confused – because the technologies to VPN and bypass such specific blocks have been evolving to counter this threat at such a rate that they are now wide spread and available to anyone easily.  If they were to shutdown *everything* - the options are far more limited – but I just don’t see that happening for all the reasons I’ve stated above.

Andrew

From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+andrew.alston=liquidtelecom.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Ronald Ojino via kictanet
Sent: 27 June 2017 08:30
To: Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>
Cc: Ronald Ojino <ronojinx at gmail.com>; rojino at cuck.ac.ke
Subject: [kictanet] PRE KIGF ONLINE DISCUSSION DAY 1 - INTERNET SHUTDOWNS

Greetings Listers,
Hope you are psyched up for today’s discussion on Internet Shutdowns especially during the election period. With such shutdowns, mobile communications, popular social networks among other forms of communication can be halted effectively crippling information exchange across the nation.
It is our desire that you share your aspirations, expectations, experience and suggestions with regard to Internet shutdowns:
a) Is there a real fear of this happening in Kenya?
b) Is there any legal basis if any (laws) that can legitimize such shutdowns?
c) What are the implications on the electoral process?
d) What options do the public have to access the Internet if shutdown happens?
Looking forward to your active participation.
Best regards,
Ronald Ojino
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