The Uganda Communications Commission has issued a shutdown order for the operation of all Internet gateways in Uganda beginning January 13, 2021 until further notice. I can't access the official Uganda Communications Commission website, but this appears to be a copy of the order https://twitter.com/DougColtart/status/1349442878481846272/photo/1
On 1/13/21 10:05 AM, Sean Donelan wrote:
The Uganda Communications Commission has issued a shutdown order for the operation of all Internet gateways in Uganda beginning January 13, 2021 until further notice.
I can't access the official Uganda Communications Commission website, but this appears to be a copy of the order
https://twitter.com/DougColtart/status/1349442878481846272/photo/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's probably just until a short-ish period after their elections. The guy who has been in power for the past 35 years wants to make sure he "wins" again. scott https://netblocks.org/reports/social-media-and-messaging-platforms-restricte... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55640405
On 13/1/21 4:05 PM, Sean Donelan wrote:
The Uganda Communications Commission has issued a shutdown order for the operation of all Internet gateways in Uganda beginning January 13, 2021 until further notice.
I can't access the official Uganda Communications Commission website, but this appears to be a copy of the order
https://twitter.com/DougColtart/status/1349442878481846272/photo/1
So sad to read this. How is it possible to think this is good to anybody?.., ok, maybe to the very high politicians of the country, but no one else. Not less than 44 million people negative affected. That's it. Alejandro,
On Jan 13, 2021, at 3:39 PM, Alejandro Acosta <alejandroacostaalamo@gmail.com> wrote:
On 13/1/21 4:05 PM, Sean Donelan wrote:
The Uganda Communications Commission has issued a shutdown order for the operation of all Internet gateways in Uganda beginning January 13, 2021 until further notice.
I can't access the official Uganda Communications Commission website, but this appears to be a copy of the order
https://twitter.com/DougColtart/status/1349442878481846272/photo/1
So sad to read this. How is it possible to think this is good to anybody?.., ok, maybe to the very high politicians of the country, but no one else. Not less than 44 million people negative affected.
That's it.
Alejandro,
It is mildly interesting to see what Twitter itself has to say about it: https://twitter.com/Policy/status/1349059275461685250 "Ahead of the Ugandan election, we're hearing reports that Internet service providers are being ordered to block social media and messaging apps. We strongly condemn internet shutdowns – they are hugely harmful, violate basic human rights and the principles of the #OpenInternet.” Oh, the jokes just write themselves… -Andy
On 13/01/2021, Andy Ringsmuth <andy@andyring.com> wrote:
On Jan 13, 2021, at 3:39 PM, Alejandro Acosta <alejandroacostaalamo@gmail.com> wrote:
On 13/1/21 4:05 PM, Sean Donelan wrote:
The Uganda Communications Commission has issued a shutdown order for the operation of all Internet gateways in Uganda beginning January 13, 2021 until further notice.
I can't access the official Uganda Communications Commission website, but this appears to be a copy of the order
https://twitter.com/DougColtart/status/1349442878481846272/photo/1
So sad to read this. How is it possible to think this is good to anybody?.., ok, maybe to the very high politicians of the country, but no one else. Not less than 44 million people negative affected.
That's it.
Alejandro,
It is mildly interesting to see what Twitter itself has to say about it:
https://twitter.com/Policy/status/1349059275461685250
"Ahead of the Ugandan election, we're hearing reports that Internet service providers are being ordered to block social media and messaging apps.
We strongly condemn internet shutdowns – they are hugely harmful, violate basic human rights and the principles of the #OpenInternet.”
Oh, the jokes just write themselves…
-Andy
The more ironic they're making this announcement together with announcing the suspension of yet another set of accounts: "Earlier this week, in close coordination with our peers, we suspended a number of accounts targeting the election in Uganda. If we can attribute any of this activity to state-backed actors, we will disclose to our archive of information operations:" "Access to information and freedom of expression, including the public conversation on Twitter, is never more important than during democratic processes, particularly elections." Since Twitter's so keen on suspending accounts and removing context from the conversation flows, here's an archive of this announcement for posterity: https://archive.is/PTNx3 C.
On 1/13/21 23:39, Alejandro Acosta wrote:
So sad to read this. How is it possible to think this is good to anybody?.., ok, maybe to the very high politicians of the country, but no one else. Not less than 44 million people negative affected.
That's it.
Just to give you a scale of the problem - ISP's were instructed to terminate services at their edge. So ATM's were also down, i.e., you can't pick up cash if you wanted to. Mark.
New ISOC shutdowns page https://insights.internetsociety.org/shutdowns On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 3:05 PM Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> wrote:
The Uganda Communications Commission has issued a shutdown order for the operation of all Internet gateways in Uganda beginning January 13, 2021 until further notice.
I can't access the official Uganda Communications Commission website, but this appears to be a copy of the order
https://twitter.com/DougColtart/status/1349442878481846272/photo/1
-- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -
About 5 days later, from January 13, 2021, through January 18, 2021, Uganda begins to restore some internet services in the nation. Most social media sites appear to still be blocked. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55705404 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni claimed Saturday that he had been re-elected for a sixth term as president since 1986. This is not the longest internet shutdown. Ethiopia shutdown internet access for nearly two months in 2020. Belerus had several full and partial internet shutdowns over several months in 2020.
How much longer before this is declared a crime against humanity? I give it 10 yrs Ms. Lady Benjamin PD Cannon, ASCE 6x7 Networks & 6x7 Telecom, LLC CEO ben@6by7.net "The only fully end-to-end encrypted global telecommunications company in the world.” FCC License KJ6FJJ Sent from my iPhone via RFC1149.
On Jan 18, 2021, at 8:24 AM, Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> wrote:
About 5 days later, from January 13, 2021, through January 18, 2021, Uganda begins to restore some internet services in the nation. Most social media sites appear to still be blocked.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55705404
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni claimed Saturday that he had been re-elected for a sixth term as president since 1986.
This is not the longest internet shutdown. Ethiopia shutdown internet access for nearly two months in 2020. Belerus had several full and partial internet shutdowns over several months in 2020.
On 1/18/21 6:24 AM, Sean Donelan wrote:
This is not the longest internet shutdown. Ethiopia shutdown internet access for nearly two months in 2020. Belerus had several full and partial internet shutdowns over several months in 2020.
Just for fun...this caused me to go looking. I found: https://internetshutdowns.in - Longest Shutdowns ------ Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir - 8th July 2016 - 19th November 2016 133 days or about 4.5 months Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir - 4th August 2019 - 4th March 2020 213 days or about 7 months ------ So in less than 4 years they went about 1/4 of the time (nearly one whole year) without internet. Mynmar has really bad stats over the Rakhine state Rohingya conflict issue. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/19/myanmar-end-worlds-longest-internet-shut... scott ps. So far, I know of https://internetshutdowns.in and netblocks.org. If anyone knows more than these that're updated regularly please let me know. I am interested in 'real time' internet shutdowns globally.
On 18 Jan 2021, at 23:02, surfer <surfer@mauigateway.com> wrote:
ps. So far, I know of https://internetshutdowns.in and netblocks.org. If anyone knows more than these that're updated regularly please let me know. I am interested in 'real time' internet shutdowns globally.
https://insights.internetsociety.org/shutdowns is very much work-in-progress. With pages like https://insights.internetsociety.org/shutdowns/4992 we're trying to provide a curated archive of shutdown events. Not real time, but hopefully at least timely. Feedback very welcome. Mat
Hello folks, Wanted to chime in to say that near-realtime outage data/graphs from the IODA (Internet Outage Detection and Analysis) system, at CAIDA, UC San Diego, are publicly available. For example, the following graph shows that the outage in Uganda began at ~4:00 PM UTC on Jan 13th and ended at ~9:00 AM UTC on Jan 18th: https://ioda.caida.org/ioda/dashboard#view=inspect&entity=country/UG&lastView=overview&from=1610280000&until=1611057600 <https://ioda.caida.org/ioda/dashboard#view=inspect&entity=country/UG&lastView=overview&from=1610280000&until=1611057600> Using the public dashboard you can view/check for outages affecting any country, sub-national region, and AS: https://ioda.caida.org/ioda/dashboard <https://ioda.caida.org/ioda/dashboard>. By default, the dashboard shows connectivity data for the last 24 hours, but users can specify any time range (up to a max of a month) back to several years. Note that a typical research infrastructure disclaimer applies: the system is still actively under development. While the automated alerts do contain false positives/negatives, the graphs provide users a clear view of what the underlying measurements tell us. Btw, IODA provides data/graphs also to ISOC Insights mentioned by Mat. Ramakrishna (Rama) Padmanabhan Postdoctoral researcher CAIDA, UC San Diego
On Jan 19, 2021, at 1:31 AM, Matthew Ford <ford@isoc.org> wrote:
On 18 Jan 2021, at 23:02, surfer <surfer@mauigateway.com> wrote:
ps. So far, I know of https://internetshutdowns.in and netblocks.org. If anyone knows more than these that're updated regularly please let me know. I am interested in 'real time' internet shutdowns globally.
https://insights.internetsociety.org/shutdowns is very much work-in-progress. With pages like https://insights.internetsociety.org/shutdowns/4992 we're trying to provide a curated archive of shutdown events. Not real time, but hopefully at least timely.
Feedback very welcome.
Mat
In 2016, U.N. Human Rights Council, resolution A/HRC/RES/32/13: "condemns unequivocally measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online in violation of international human rights law and calls on all States to refrain from and cease such measures". https://thehill.com/policy/technology/286236-un-rights-council-condemns-inte... Netblocks.org tracks internet shutdowns in near-realtime. Access Now and Internet Society have been reporting on internet shutdowns for many years. Top10VPN.com annual report give a reputable summary of intentional government internet shutdowns around the world. https://www.top10vpn.com/cost-of-internet-shutdowns/ The Global Cost of Internet Shutdowns in 2020 93 major shutdowns took place in 21 countries in 2020 27,165 hours: total duration of major disruptions around the world, up 49% from the previous year. Internet blackouts: 10,693 hours Internet throttling: 10,920 hours Social media shutdowns: 5,552 hours
From: Sean Donelan Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2021 1:58 AM
In 2016, U.N. Human Rights Council, resolution A/HRC/RES/32/13: "condemns unequivocally measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online in violation of international human rights law and calls on all States to refrain from and cease such measures".
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/286236-un-rights-council-condemns- internet-blocking
Netblocks.org tracks internet shutdowns in near-realtime. Access Now and Internet Society have been reporting on internet shutdowns for many years.
Top10VPN.com annual report give a reputable summary of intentional government internet shutdowns around the world.
https://www.top10vpn.com/cost-of-internet-shutdowns/ The Global Cost of Internet Shutdowns in 2020
93 major shutdowns took place in 21 countries in 2020
27,165 hours: total duration of major disruptions around the world, up 49% from the previous year. Internet blackouts: 10,693 hours Internet throttling: 10,920 hours Social media shutdowns: 5,552 hours
Hopefully starlink and other similar projects will help bring these numbers down a bit. But I think starlink has been already outlawed in some countries? adam
On 1/19/21 11:49, adamv0025@netconsultings.com wrote:
Hopefully starlink and other similar projects will help bring these numbers down a bit. But I think starlink has been already outlawed in some countries?
Moonshine satellite links abound in many places they shouldn't be. It's cops & robbers stuff... Mark.
On 1/19/21 11:49, adamv0025@netconsultings.com wrote:
Hopefully starlink and other similar projects will help bring these numbers down a bit. But I think starlink has been already outlawed in some countries?
Moonshine satellite links abound in many places they shouldn't be. It's cops & robbers stuff...
Mark. Starlink needs expensive modem, that is not only too expensive for such countries, hard to import, but can be also reason for very long prison sentence. Some nanosatellite with amplified BLE compatible frontend might do miracles. It is impossible to block ISM band countrywide, anybody can climb a hill and point mobile to sky and receive regional news. No need even for custom software, just any software that can receive BLE data (development/debugging tools). As kind of PoC, Norby cubesat with LoRa telemetry is being received over
On 2021-01-19 15:45, Mark Tinka wrote: the world on 1000+km distances on DIY antennas.
On 1/19/21 16:28, Denys Fedoryshchenko wrote:
Starlink needs expensive modem, that is not only too expensive for such countries, hard to import, but can be also reason for very long prison sentence. Some nanosatellite with amplified BLE compatible frontend might do miracles. It is impossible to block ISM band countrywide, anybody can climb a hill and point mobile to sky and receive regional news. No need even for custom software, just any software that can receive BLE data (development/debugging tools). As kind of PoC, Norby cubesat with LoRa telemetry is being received over the world on 1000+km distances on DIY antennas.
Satellite is hard to control, and there are several ways to get it into a country and have it function for purpose without any real drama. It's where we came from :-)... Mark.
On Tue, 19 Jan 2021, Mark Tinka wrote:
Satellite is hard to control, and there are several ways to get it into a country and have it function for purpose without any real drama.
It's where we came from :-)...
There is only one problem in engineering -- scaling. Country internet shutdowns never go to zero. There's usually 5% to 15% left over connectivity. There are always a few embassies, international companies, NGOs and even government offices itself with left over service. Satellites (even next-gen) are great for small outposts, ships, oil platforms. But have scaling problems, i.e. billing millions of customers without the government noticing. Large capacity earth stations and cable landing sites are noticable. The mobile phone carriers and ISPs serving the other million(s) customers will obey the government shutdown orders. Its very difficult (cost, techincally, access) for the ordinary consumer to get around their own government's orders. Yes, the rich can always afford/get sat-phones and sat-modems. When an autocratic government notices too many people using something else, it can become very painful for those subscribers. And of course, international treaties (ITU) covering satellites and international radio transmissions are written by governments.
On 1/19/21 17:15, Sean Donelan wrote:
There is only one problem in engineering -- scaling.
Country internet shutdowns never go to zero. There's usually 5% to 15% left over connectivity. There are always a few embassies, international companies, NGOs and even government offices itself with left over service.
Satellites (even next-gen) are great for small outposts, ships, oil platforms. But have scaling problems, i.e. billing millions of customers without the government noticing. Large capacity earth stations and cable landing sites are noticable.
The mobile phone carriers and ISPs serving the other million(s) customers will obey the government shutdown orders. Its very difficult (cost, techincally, access) for the ordinary consumer to get around their own government's orders. Yes, the rich can always afford/get sat-phones and sat-modems.
When an autocratic government notices too many people using something else, it can become very painful for those subscribers.
And of course, international treaties (ITU) covering satellites and international radio transmissions are written by governments.
Satellite solutions are not ideal for large scale use-cases. These would be for the odd business, the odd whale, that sort of thing. At scale, satellite doesn't work anymore, not even in Africa. That said, it's easy to hit people where it hurts by getting the mobile operators to block access, especially in Africa. That is how most people get (and stay) connected. For a tiresome gubbermint, the extra 5% - 15% connectivity that remains after all the blocking dust has settled, is a small price to pay to keep the remaining 85% - 95% disconnected. Mark.
participants (12)
-
adamv0025＠netconsultings.com -
Alejandro Acosta -
Andy Ringsmuth -
Ben Cannon -
Constantine A. Murenin -
Denys Fedoryshchenko -
Joly MacFie -
Mark Tinka -
Matthew Ford -
Ramakrishna Padmanabhan -
Sean Donelan -
surfer