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Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

theguardian.com

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Re: Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

#111

Post by globular-toast »

alexvitkov wrote: post #101
globular-toast wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're replying to a thread where people lose internet connectivity when a bunch of men are kicking a ball around a field.

This has nothing to do with ipv4/ipv6 and the "ridiculous hacks" we do to keep ipv4 going. Those work just fine. This is a cultural problem, not a technological one.

If we want to use the internet as a communication network then we need peer-to-peer connectivity. We can't get than on IPv4. Resilience is pointless if everyone needs to connect to the same (few) middlemen before they can establish any kind of connection to a peer. It's no better than the old telephone system that needed an exclusive physical link between correspondents.

We almost had this in the early 2000s, but then we regressed. People were excited about meshnets, when was the last time someone mentioned those? Too many people have forgotten and now many have been raised in this current form of the Internet thinking it's the only way. We need to think bigger. We need to push for IPv6 and basic internet connectivity (meaning ability to connect to any peer in the world) as a human right. Otherwise we build our lives around something that can be taken away on a whim over something as silly as grown men kicking a bladder around a field.

Re: Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

#112

Post by lupusreal »

nextts wrote: post #13
briandear wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have Starlink and it doesn’t seem to be affected in Spain, but I could be wrong. I just haven’t noticed it.

Why would it? That's a network in space. Could the Spanish league force a US company to block specific satellites covering some part of Spain and some part of not Spain? Seems a stretch.

Starlink doesn't defy local governments except when the US government greenlights it (offering service in Iran.)

Re: Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

#113

Post by leereeves »

01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #109
daveguy wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starlink puts "internet shutdown" in the hands of just one asshole oligarch.

[flagged]

> Fact check: Mostly true

That's not what that link says.

"... the claim that Musk had ordered Starlink coverage in Crimea 'turned off' wasn't entirely accurate. (Both CNN and The Washington Post subsequently corrected their reports.)"

Re: Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

#114

Post by pc86 »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #108
pc86 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely you're talking about a District Attorney deciding that an individual needs to be charged prima facie and saying he "will find a crime" right?

I expect that's not what they were talking about, but I bet what you are talking about can happen just about anywhere.

I'm sure it could and it's wrong everywhere.

Re: Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

#115

Post by leereeves »

fluoridation wrote: post #89
GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Individuals looking for belts and nation-states looking for networking equipment are not really the same thing… also belts don’t usually include service/maintenance contracts etc, or the ability to be revoked from the public at large (imagine the embarrassment)

It doesn't have to be the same, that's what makes it an analogy. What is the same is the relative relationships between the elements involved. Although, now that you've made me think about it, I guess it's not quite right anyway, because I doubt it's Switzerland selling technology, but Swiss companies . It'd be more correct to say that because you bought a belt from the store, the store-owner's father (as well as som…

The way these countries treat their citizens is rarely a secret. I'd say a better analogy is that gun stores should not sell guns to known felons.

Re: Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

#116

Post by ge96 »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #92
ge96 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be interesting if they could jam starlink by tracking/blocking the laser coming off the spacecraft (satellite) probably far fetched

Tracking satellites is computationally intensive, Starlink has many satellites, and friends generally don't jam friends' communication satellites. The old jokes about aggressive NFL Copyright enforcement would really pale in comparison to Spain developing a mature anti-satellite capability in order to disrupt soccer broadcast piracy at the physical layer .

> Tracking satellites is computationally intensive

Is it? I've seen a guy doing it by hand with a YAGI antenna and a little handled radio. But I could see it for many and the phased part. Also people have web models like this one showing the orbits.

https://satellitemap.space/

Anyway yeah just mental exercise not really arguing for it

Re: Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

#117

Post by throwaway894345 »

dylan604 wrote: post #67
throwaway894345 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they’re blocking all of Cloudflare I would think they could also be able to block popular VPN gateways. It’s wild that a sports league has power to dictate to ISPs like this.

Are you just stuck on it being a sports league? Just s/sports league/entity with lots of money/

No, it's wild that any private entity has the legal censorship authority. My own country is catapulting into authoritarianism, but as far as I'm aware, we haven't gotten to the point yet where private entities are unilaterally disconnecting users from broad swaths of the Internet.

Re: Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

#118

Post by thrance »

kiney wrote: post #110
lenerdenator wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm beginning to think Europe needs to just dry out from soccer for a year or two. Like, we're impacting communications now.

the problem here isn't football. It's rampant censoreship and net blocks in the EU. (same problem different methods in other EU countries. In germany theiy raid your home for harmless political satire)

What kind of "harmless political satire"? Where can I find more about this?

Re: Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

#119

Post by DeepSeaTortoise »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #69
ryandrake wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a football problem, it's a "company has way too much power" problem. It's as if Coca-Cola were allowed to tell my water company to turn off my tap water for a few hours because I should be drinking their soda at lunchtime.

So then why hasn’t Europe made a viable competitor to Cloudflare yet…?

Must be a lack of regulations and compliance procedures giving potential entrepreneurs the legal framework to work within.

Re: Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access 'weaponised'

#120

Post by fluoridation »

leereeves wrote: post #115
fluoridation wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't have to be the same, that's what makes it an analogy. What is the same is the relative relationships between the elements involved. Although, now that you've made me think about it, I guess it's not quite right anyway, because I doubt it's Switzerland selling technology, but Swiss companies . It'd be more correct to say that because you bought a belt from the store, the store-owner's father (as well as som…

The way these countries treat their citizens is rarely a secret. I'd say a better analogy is that gun stores should not sell guns to known felons.

What would prevent gun stores from selling guns to criminals would be the law and the punishments doled out by the government. So if your argument is that Switzerland should punish Swiss companies for dealing with oppressive governments, then yeah, maybe. That's not the topic of discussion, though.

If someone buys a gun in a foreign country, and after returning to his home country he shoots a man, is he subject to the laws of the foreign country? To me that sounds like it would be a breach of the sovereignty of the man's home country. Not that I'm saying this is an apt analogy, but it's certainly closer.

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