Re: [gaia] Blog on AFRINIC proposal

[Amreesh Phokeer <[e-mail]>]

I think the first and foremost aim of the authors of the policy was to send
a strong message to governments..."if you shut us down, we (AFRINIC
community) can also shut you (governments) down. But of course this is
completely flawed as much as the intent of the policy is laudable. Whenever
you concentrate power in the hands of a central authority, there is always
a potential for abuse.

Of course, as suggested, advocacy, education, solidarity are better
routes....but those are a long walk to freedom. I think, we as a global
community, should work on technologies that would make censorship,
surveillance and Internet shutdown extremely hard to operate and true
decentralization might be one of them.

--
Amreesh

On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 3:36 AM, Alejandro Acosta <
[e-mail]> wrote:

> Hello,
>
>   In my small and personal experience the people who ask for shutting down
> networks don't mind (not even a little) the economical impact (hard to
> believe & sad to say it but unfortunately it's the truth).
>
> Alejandro,
>
> El 4/6/17 a las 10:56 a.m., Vint Cerf escribió:
>
> one answer is to try to quantify the economic (and reputational?) impact
> of shutdown so that leaders who choose to adopt this action have a better
> appreciation of the costs.
>
> v
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 10:24 AM, Corinne Cath <[e-mail]>
> wrote:
>
>> Great discussion! And I agree with much of what has been said. But that
>> still leaves us with the open question of what the response of AFRINIC
>> should be to shutdowns. I agree this proposal was problematic (as I point
>> out in the blog), but am interested to hear what advocacy, support, and
>> solidarity by AFRINIC could/should look like in the case of Internet
>> shutdowns.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> On Sat, Jun 3, 2017 at 3:35 PM, Jon Crowcroft <[e-mail]
>> > wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> the problem with witholding a resource as a lever to try to reduce
>>> censorship
>>> (witholding of access to the net) is that its
>>> a) an implicitly negative message to counter a negative message,
>>> which takes the risk of accusations of hypocrisy
>>> b) it risks collective punishment
>>> i.e. hurts victims of governments' misguided policy,
>>> as well as government agency, which is over-reach
>>> c) the proposal is the opposite of basic internet philosophy, as per
>>> Gilmore :
>>> *"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."*
>>> which means that the proposal risks undermining citizen/peer actions
>>>
>>> intentions are good, but advocacy, support, solidarity seems like a
>>> better road
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jun 3, 2017 at 3:49 PM, Nicolas Pace <[e-mail]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thanks Vint for sharing your point of view.
>>>> If I may give my two cents, through advocacy is that, in the summit
>>>> here in nayrobi the community all together wrote the proposal.
>>>>
>>>> There needs to be stronger efforts to make internet less
>>>> country-dependant and more resilient... But these are urgent matters. While
>>>> we get to that resilient future, we need to support our communities on
>>>> their decisions regarding their own problematics.
>>>>
>>>> I understand that IP address may seem to be a technical thing, but
>>>> governments are hijacking them into a political standpoint.
>>>>
>>>> Instead of making this a specific action, I would suggest that we could
>>>> work out a regulation that requires IP tenants not to shutdown connectivity
>>>> as a condition to receive their ranges... Or some sort of agreement on
>>>> openness.
>>>>
>>>> Could it be possible, and would it be useful to tackle this issue? What
>>>> do you think?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On June 3, 2017 4:41:04 PM GMT+03:00, Vint Cerf <[e-mail]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I implied it: advocacy
>>>>>
>>>>> v
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Jun 3, 2017 at 9:38 AM, Nicolas Pace <[e-mail]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> What would be your approach on this matter then? I'm curious to know
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On June 3, 2017 4:36:36 PM GMT+03:00, Vint Cerf <[e-mail]>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My reaction: politicizing IP address allocation is a mistake and
>>>>>>> could have enormous, negative consequences including a wide range of
>>>>>>> fragmentation and legal intimidation of the RIRs.  Advocacy is fine but
>>>>>>> withholding IP addresses for political reasons is not wise.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> v
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Sat, Jun 3, 2017 at 5:16 AM, Corinne Cath <[e-mail]>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> CFR invited me to write a blog about the recent AFRINIC proposal to
>>>>>>>> deny IP addresses to governments mandating Internet shutdowns. Might be of
>>>>>>>> interest.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> https://www.cfr.org/article/should-technical-actors-play-pol
>>>>>>>> itical-role-internet-age
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Best,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Corinne J.N. Cath
>>>>>>>> Ph.D. Candidate, Oxford Internet Institute & Alan Turing Institute
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Web: www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/corinne-cath
>>>>>>>> Email: [e-mail] & [e-mail]
>>>>>>>> Twitter: @C_Cath
>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> New postal address:
>>>>>>> Google
>>>>>>> 1875 Explorer Street, 10th Floor
>>>>>>> Reston, VA 20190
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> New postal address:
>>>>> Google
>>>>> 1875 Explorer Street, 10th Floor
>>>>> Reston, VA 20190
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Corinne J.N. Cath
>> Ph.D. Candidate, Oxford Internet Institute & Alan Turing Institute
>>
>> Web: www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/corinne-cath
>> Email: [e-mail] & [e-mail]
>> Twitter: @C_Cath
>>
>
>
>
> --
> New postal address:
> Google
> 1875 Explorer Street, 10th Floor
> Reston, VA 20190
>
>
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-- 
Amreesh Phokeer