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Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election

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Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election

#171

About 20 years ago there was this optimism that Internet is this new unstoppable thing that will liberate the world to have free communication and knowledge sharing. Unfortunate that turned out to be such a false idea. Probably the infrastructure of it all simply wouldn't allow it...maybe that's what needs to change.

Peer to peer internet is what is missing I suppose.

The Internet is peer to peer by design, even if the most popular user-facing applications do not take full advantage of peer to peer architecture.

Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election

#172
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shit like this has no place on HN. Using random statistics to justify taking away the freedom to access internet is NEVER okay.

You are not the arbiter of acceptable discourse.

Who is?

Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election

#173
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* 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.

Serious question: how would a satellite ISP know where a user is located? Moreover, how can a satellite ISP ensure that its signals are not entering a particular country, especially a geographically small country?

If you just took a standard antenna that approximately speaking broadcast evenly in every direction, you couldn't (or at least you would have to bother triangulating the signal). If you did that though you wouldn't be able to offer high speed internet because you would be incredibly bandwidth constrained.

Instead, what these satellites are doing is using something called a phased array antenna, that let's them narrowly select what area they are broadcasting to and receiving from at any point in time with some fancy electronics controlling an array of many little antennas that constructively/destructively interfere. As a result, they have to know where the base stations are reasonably precisely.

I'm not actually sure how they discover where base stations are, my guess would be GPS on the base stations and omni-directional signalling to find them, in which case they know to within meters where a base station is. If that guess is wrong, you might be able to be a small amount over a border and have SpaceX not know it, but not substantially.

Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election

#174

This is why I’m excited about Starlink.

Starlink is not the solution. A private entity then decides who gets what and the US government will also meddle in what is allowed. Do you think Starlink would be allowed to route TikTok traffic if it got banned?

I think people in China would be able to use Starlink without the great firewall being in the way. Just having access not be routed through ground based, hardwired facilities will go a long way toward preventing this type of thing.

There's no reason to ban TikTok or other apps if people in China have unrestricted access to US companies.

Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election

#175
post #126
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

How would a state extract fines out of an external entity who does not operate in that state? International court? Those only deal with human rights, resources and border disputes.

Shoot down the satellites?

Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election

#176

I have coworkers in Belarus who have been cut off from our (US based) company since the weekend. I've been able to hear from one of them intermittently, but it's a scary thing, I can't imagine what they're going through.

FYI - we have been able to get regular SMS and voice calls through (using Google Fi as our carrier). It was great to go from "absolute zero communication" to "we know you're currently OK"

Time to break out the 56K modems!

Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election

#177
post #112

Context: Russian Mercs in Belarus: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/belarus-arrests-dozen...

If we can have different point of views that would be helpful for a better judgement: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/08/the-russian-coup-plot-...

While possible their source is kp.ru, article could on one page with UFO conspiracy.

Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election

#179
post #7

wondering 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

ISPs must follow the laws of the countries they operate in so I am not sure this will work out.

On the flip side, I don't think they can block communications forever, so is that tactic even going to work ?

People are still going to be pissed in one month.

Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election

#180
post #104

I've noticed this in other countries where there are accusations of rigging the results that the ratios always super high, in this case 80%. If you're going to fake an election result that had some legitimate measurable opposition, why make it so extremely high? Does that mean nearly every vote counting place is rigged and it's so bad they don't even bother hiding it? Just like when Crimea voted to join Russia it was…

Nothing beats 146% election

https://i2.wp.com/euromaidanpress.com/wp-content/uploads/201...

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