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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'

#71

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

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…?

Cloudflare isn't the company with too much power in the above scenario: La Liga is. CF isn't turning off access because they want to, it's because La Liga convinced a court that Cloudflare is promoting "piracy" with the various websites they host (some of which, constituting less than a rounding error of the overall sites they host, may host pirated soccer streams), and convinced a court to have Cloudflare blocked.

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

#72

Post by 4b11b4 »

This should be an extremely high profile piece of news...

Imagine people all over planet Earth talking to each other in real life, in passing.. "Did you hear Internet access is cut off in ____"?

Is there not some "tracker" out there? I'm sure it would be hard to keep up to date but..

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

#73

Post by ge96 »

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.

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

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

#74

Post by Retric »

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

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.

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

#75

Post by [deleted] »

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…?

[deleted]

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

#76

Post by ryandrake »

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

Wow, I try to come up with an exaggerated hypothetical and it turns out to be a real example. We live in a ridiculous world.

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

#77

Post by FirmwareBurner »

ty6853 wrote: post #35
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many pirate ISPs exist in EU? How many of them have satellites in orbit?

How many ibuprofen pirates are there in Europe? None, because it's easy enough to get it without a cartel operation. Making wanted goods and services illegal just hands profits to the black market, it doesn't stop them. If Spain bans the internet there will be pirate ISPs tomorrow.

>it doesn't stop them.

Yeah? Where are the pirate ISPs of North Korea then?

Mate, you're fighting with ghosts here. There are legit ISPs in EU, you don't need pirate ones. And there are legit VPNs to bypass whatever soft government restrictions are in place. There's no point arguing about endless made up hypotheticals.

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

#78

Post by bombcar »

spacebanana7 wrote: post #33
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think it's a stretch? If Starlink wants to legally operate in a country as an ISP then it has to comply with the laws of that country. Just because it's using satellites instead of locally deployed physical infrastructure doesn't absolve it from ISP and general telecomunications regulations of a country. So if the Spanish government were to make a law saying all ISPs must block the following domains for wh…

Out of curiosity, is there anything technical the Spanish authorities could do to block Starlink (i.e jamming)? Or are legal/bureaucratic measures the only solution?

There are countries where starlink isn’t available. But if you get one from a nearby country and keep quiet it works.

Spain isn’t large enough, I suspect. But they can lean on starlink as long as they’re sold there.

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

#79

Post by alephnerd »

4b11b4 wrote: post #72

This should be an extremely high profile piece of news... Imagine people all over planet Earth talking to each other in real life, in passing.. "Did you hear Internet access is cut off in ____"? Is there not some "tracker" out there? I'm sure it would be hard to keep up to date but..

In most countries, "curfews" are viewed as a justified legal construct. In most cases, internet shutdowns are clubbed with general curfews as well.

You see this especially in most of the former British colonies listed that continue to use British Colonial Era legislation for Law and Order. You see this is South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh), Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar), and much of Africa (eg. Nigeria, Kenya) as well

It's the classic "collectivist" versus "individualist" split, and it's something only individual countries can decide.

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

#80

Post by GuinansEyebrows »

fluoridation wrote: post #65
matt3210 wrote: post #59

Some might say the other countries should stay out of it. For example people might say Switzerland should stay out of those nations issues. However, if Switzerland provided technology thought a normal market or not, to the rulers, they have already interfered with the natural progression of that nation. There is no hope of the people making the situation better while Switzerland is providing the rulers with tech and…

That's like saying that because the store sold you the belt you're using to beat your children, the owners should break into your house to physically stop you from doing so.

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)
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