[bestbits] Spain/Catalunya Developments. Scary

Wed Sep 20 15:39:53 EDT 2017

As a member of this community and a Spanish citizen, let me share some 
brief comments…

Instead of going down the path that allows for dialogue, debate and 
allowing for a vote to take place (was was the case with the Quebec 
referendums in 1980 & 1995, The Scottish referendum in 2014) the Spanish 
central government has instead chosen to use the force of law to repress 
a the democratic and UN enshrined right of self-determination.

Ballots have been seized, domains have been seized, separatist leaders 
have been criminally sanctioned, authority has been taken away from the 
Cataluña government, and a raid took place earlier today at offices of 
the .cat registry!

It’s a complex political issue with a lot of history, that’s for 
sure.. It’s now time for those (like this list and others) who are 
supportive of digital… human rights … to speak out and comment on 
this repressive and fascist reaction by the Spanish government.

regards,

Robert

—
The offices of the .cat registry were raided by Spanish police this 
morning.
https://www.internetnews.me/2017/09/20/dotcat-registry-offices-raided-spanish-police/
--
Robert Guerra
Twitter: twitter.com/netfreedom
Email: rguerra at privaterra.org
PGP Keys : https://keybase.io/rguerra

On 20 Sep 2017, at 14:26, James Gannon wrote:

> Im going to go out on a limb here and split my response,
>
> First - this is a terrible terrible action, the right of people to 
> self organise and decide their future should be sacrosanct and these 
> heavy handed tactics should be denounced far and wide. We fight 
> against this kind of action in far flung corners of the world, in 
> Europe we lose a lot of our creditability when we allow things like 
> this to happen on our own doorstep.
>
> Secondly - I don’t think ICANN should have a response, at the end of 
> the day this is a content issue and that is something ICANN has no 
> role in. If the whole of .cat had been taken down yes that would be a 
> different conversation but again, my understanding is that its 
> official LEO and government actions here with the takedowns.
>
> -James
>
>
> On 20 Sep 2017, at 20:22, Gus Rossi 
> <gus at publicknowledge.org<mailto:gus at publicknowledge.org>> wrote:
>
> I'm writing a blogpost from PK's side.
>
> Looking forward seeing/hearing more voices :)
>
> ----
> #       #       #
> #       •       #
> #       #
>
>
> Gus Rossi
> Global Policy Director (202) 861-0020<tel:(202)%20861-0020> (x123) | 
> (202) 651 1337<tel:(202)%651-1337> (mobile) | 
> @agustinrs<https://twitter.com/agustinrs>
> Public Knowledge | 
> @publicknowledge<https://twitter.com/publicknowledge> | 
> www.publicknowledge.org<http://www.publicknowledge.org/>
> 1818 N St. NW, Suite 410 | Washington, DC 20036 | CFC 12259
>
> The IP3 Awards are September 28th! RSVP at 
> publicknowledge.org/IP32017<http://publicknowledge.org/IP32017>.
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 2:21 PM, Renata Avila 
> <renata.avila at webfoundation.org<mailto:renata.avila at webfoundation.org>> 
> wrote:
> Totally and it is not isolated from increasingly restrictive - 
> repressive laws and practices the Spanish government has approved and 
> practiced the last 5 years. And it sets a precedent of what is 
> acceptable if people from the international community remain silent.
>
> Yes, politics are complicated. Everywhere.
>
> But the defence of human rights is non partisan and a collective 
> responsibility.
>
> I am curious to read ICANN response and diff positions from our 
> organisations and spaces.
>
> R
>
>
>
>
> Renata Avila
>
> Senior Digital Rights Advisor
>
> renata.avila at webfoundation.org<mailto:renata.avila at webfoundation.org>
>
> 1110 Vermont Ave NW, Suite 500, Washington DC 20005, 
> USA<https://maps.google.com/?q=1110+Vermont+Ave+NW,+Suite+500,+Washington+DC+20005,+USA&entry=gmail&source=g> 
> | www.webfoundation.org<http://www.webfoundation.org/> | Twitter: 
> @webfoundation
>
> On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 8:12 PM, Gus Rossi 
> <gus at publicknowledge.org<mailto:gus at publicknowledge.org>> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Context: Catalunya is holding an independence referendum next month. 
> The Spanish Constitution does not recognize any kind of questioning of 
> the territorial integrity of Spain. But the Catalan parliament 
> approved having a referendum anyway. Today, Spanish police carried out 
> morning raids at regional government offices in Barcelona, arresting 
> several Catalan officials involved in preparations for the referendum. 
> In addition, websites have been shutdown or blocked, and .CAT domain 
> technical staff have been detained. Also, the magazines of an 
> important independentist association (Omnium Cultural) have been 
> denied delivery by the Spanish postal service.
>
> Regardless of what you might think of the Catalan political process, 
> independentist movements in Europe, or else, there are some things I 
> wanted to bring to your attention.
>
> The Internet: Right now, this conflict has definitively spilled over 
> Internet Freedom of Expression, human rights, and the right to an open 
> Internet:
>
> .CAT domain has been intervened by the Spanish Police (Guardia Civil:  
> https://twitter.com/puntcat/status/910446518494269440) All web pages 
> under that domain that have information about the referendum have been 
> suspended.
>
> The technical staff of .CAT has been detained by the police (including 
> one ISOC-CAT member).
>
> This was the webpage calling for the catalan referendum: 
> http://ref1oct.cat/. nic.EU is now hosting the webpage, but there are 
> reports that Spanish authorities have ordered ISPs to block the DNSs: 
> ref1oct.eu<http://ref1oct.eu/>
>
> There are large DDoS attacks on some websites (apparently Cloudflare 
> is under attack, as per some reports), and there is traffic 
> manipulation by the ISPs (DNS blocking on certain domains).
>
> In addition, there has been confiscation of personal goods of the 
> Catalan politicians, police searches in newspapers and printing 
> plants, some email.
>
> This is Western Europe in 2017 that we are talking about. We should be 
> worried.
>
> ----
> #       #       #
> #       •       #
> #       #
>
>
> Gus Rossi
> Global Policy Director (202) 861-0020<tel:(202)%20861-0020> (x123) | 
> (202) 651 1337<tel:(202)%651-1337> (mobile) | 
> @agustinrs<https://twitter.com/agustinrs>
> Public Knowledge | 
> @publicknowledge<https://twitter.com/publicknowledge> | 
> www.publicknowledge.org<http://www.publicknowledge.org/>
> 1818 N St. NW, Suite 410 | Washington, DC 
> 20036<https://maps.google.com/?q=1818+N+St.+NW,+Suite+410+%7C%C2%A0Washington,+DC+20036&entry=gmail&source=g> 
> | CFC 12259
>
> The IP3 Awards are September 28th! RSVP at 
> publicknowledge.org/IP32017<http://publicknowledge.org/IP32017>.
>
>
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