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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'

#131

Post by Retric »

NewJazz wrote: post #122
Retric wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not literally the same thing, it was a protest over them for not “connect wells of their property to the public service supply network.” Which isn’t something I’d want random companies to be doing, and a figurative drop in the bucket.

One drop in an empty bucket is infinitely more water.

> One drop in an empty bucket is infinitely more water.

No multiply 0 by infinity and you don’t get one drop, ie 1/0 is undefined.

Further it wasn’t an empty bucket.

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

#132

Post by Retric »

int_19h wrote: post #123
Retric wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not literally the same thing, it was a protest over them for not “connect wells of their property to the public service supply network.” Which isn’t something I’d want random companies to be doing, and a figurative drop in the bucket.

It's the same aquifer though, right?

If the factory had simply shut down without hooking up their infrastructure, the area still would have had the exact same short term issues.

The issue was arguably a lack of wells in an extreme situation, not a lack of water in the aquifer.

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

#135

Post by [deleted] »

imachine1980_ wrote: post #70
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.

this literally happens in mexico, monterrey in 2022 during biggest drought in the century, public supply was shut down while coca-cola keep producing soft drink from that reservoir, they end-up give some percentage back after a protest. https://www.jornada.com.mx/2022/08/06/estados/022n1est

[deleted]

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

#136

Post by bilbo0s »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #128

Internet has become an essential right up there with housing, electricity, water etc. Everywhere around the world people are connected to the internet. Even in poor African countries.

Um.

Yeah.

The internet is important. But if you go some places in this world you learn in a very swift fashion that it is not as important as housing, food, and water.

There's parts of the world that are not a fairy tale. Places where people have far more basic worries.

That said, if there are parts of Africa where people want the luxury of internet, they should, of course, be allowed access. The mere fact that they want it is an indication that they are in a relatively well off area.

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

#137

Post by 05 »

sebmellen wrote: post #62
VHRanger wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VPNs would not make sense if the actual ISP if blocking you. Apart from something like starlink and even then they're not playing nice with geographical access most of the time based on politics, whims of a narcissist, or just business.

Starlink is the only massively global ISP and (as far as I’m aware) has not cut off access for anyone based on their politics or location.

Except Ukraine

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

#138

Post by ptrl600 »

thrance wrote: post #118
kiney wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

"Pimmelgate", Stefan Niehoff raid are two examples of hilariously disproportionate law enforcement response for minimal offense.

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

#139

Post by m3047 »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #43

Apps should respond to events like this by becoming smaller--so that you can only collaborate with people on your network partition. Most of the time they instead break altogether. The future is way to uncertain to assume a reliably connected future, which is what most of our tech is doing.

I made a wifi firing range / disconnected collab environment to this end a few years ago. Has BIND (which takes over the world), Apache, DAV, Etherpad. I carry a VM of it around on my laptop "against the day".

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

#140

Post by bilbo0s »

alephnerd wrote: post #87
jp42 wrote: post #81

Internet shutdown typically happens during riots/ violent protests. Starlink makes "internet shutdown" impotent. Though Starlink has to follow country's laws and actually shutdown the internet. Most if not all protest are sponsored by entities that are against the host country and they will find ways to enable the internet for protesters with starlink or some other ways.

> Starlink makes "internet shutdown" impotent It still requires a radio transmitter. If push comes to shove, a government can still track RF leakage or worst case GPS jamming (if it's really that existential). Iran did the same thing when cracking down on Satelite TV and SatPhones during the crackdown of the Green Revolution (anti-Ahmedinijad protests in 2009) and anecdotally, Starlink terminals have been increasingl…

A lot of these people talk about Starlink like they never heard of RF engineering.

It's like, "Um, guy, Starlink can be shut down too."

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