A case where I feel amateur (ham) radio would be a potential lifeline to the outside world.
Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
21–30 of 295 posts
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#22Context: Russian Mercs in Belarus: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/belarus-arrests-dozen...
it's not related to riots that are happening now
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see Starlink shutting down subscribers if the Belarussian government asks them to, at least not very quickly. If the terminals are available, this is going to make all of the national internet projects (Russia, China, Iran) much more difficult to pull off.
My guess is Starlink isn't going to turn off subscribers for small countries, but large countries like Russia and China may have more influence. The real question is if there's going to be enough receivers to make a difference.
Any country which has the capability of shooting down satellites has more influence than countries which can't do it. But even a country with like 100 million residents, if it doesn't have a space program (or someone protecting it with a space program), it doesn't have much of a say.
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#24wondering what / if any impact "the space internet" (or like networks) will have on national government's ability to disrupt comms. or if it just shifts the goalposts to a different network operator
An ISP must be registered with the government and must follow laws in place for filtering content and working with the government. Whether the ISP is using any local infrastructure or "going to space" doesn't matter.
The question isn't whether or not there are laws against it, it's how you enforce the laws. For example, the USSR had to jam radio stations to stop external content getting into it's borders. Would a country like Belarus try to do the same type of thing when it comes to satellite internet?
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#25Context: Russian Mercs in Belarus: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/belarus-arrests-dozen...
There's no context in the above link.
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#26wondering what / if any impact "the space internet" (or like networks) will have on national government's ability to disrupt comms. or if it just shifts the goalposts to a different network operator
An ISP must be registered with the government and must follow laws in place for filtering content and working with the government. Whether the ISP is using any local infrastructure or "going to space" doesn't matter.
I guess the idea would be that, like with satellite phones now, you could theoretically use a hypothetical satellite internet from any country and get the same experience. It may run afoul of local laws, but there wouldn't be a technical obstacle, barring country wide jamming.
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
It will shift a lot of power from the countries where the internet users are located to the countries where the space internet companies operate from. Both in the free countries like the EU, and in non-free countries like Belarus. That being said, the user's country still has some level of control: * the companies want to be paid by their users somehow, and local governments usually have control over money flows insi…
* International treaties and national laws prohibit sending radio signals into the country if the countries government doesn't give you permission. Space ISPs are very unlikely to do so without permission except at the behest of their home government.
Yes; can't they just declare that Starlink's particular transmission bands are reserved for Belarussian military use, and then fine them for broadcasting on military bands?
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
It will shift a lot of power from the countries where the internet users are located to the countries where the space internet companies operate from. Both in the free countries like the EU, and in non-free countries like Belarus. That being said, the user's country still has some level of control: * the companies want to be paid by their users somehow, and local governments usually have control over money flows insi…
* International treaties and national laws prohibit sending radio signals into the country if the countries government doesn't give you permission. Space ISPs are very unlikely to do so without permission except at the behest of their home government.
That's much harder to do under the table though. Most of these I ternet blocking orders do their best to avoid leaving a paper trail of responsibility.
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#29this is nothing. shameless plug. I am a kashmiri typing this from 2G internet which apprently is the only acceptable thing for the indian government to allow me. 4G access has been stopped since 5 AUGUST 2019. a freaking year has passed and no high speed internet. I didnt have 2G for like 7 months.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revocation_of_the_special_stat...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Kashmir#Censorsh...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_Jammu_and_Ka...
belarus can stop internet for all they want, as long as they want. they have the legal precedent to do so aka india via kashmir
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#30This is incredibly sad. I spent a few weeks in Belarus last summer (2019) and everyone seemed incredibly hopeful and positive. It's a beautiful country and Minsk is a gorgeous city. I've been able to contact a few of my friends there sporadically over the past few days, but have heard nothing from them for 24 hours. Initially it seemed like a block on communication apps like WhatsApp and they could get around it with…
I was there in ‘17 - and nobody, nobody I met had a good word to say about the government. The main theme was “it’s going to change, soon” - which makes the credibility of this result all the less probable.
Sure, it’s apocryphal, but after a month there travelling all over, the only person I met who thought lukashenko was good for the country was a multimillionaire from “business”.