[governance] Fwd: How Cameroon pressured mobile operators to shut down the internet and stifle dissent

Nyangkwe Agien Aaron nyangkweagien at gmail.com
Sat Jan 28 19:11:00 EST 2017 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: 'Pa Fru Ndeh' via ambasbay <ambasbay at googlegroups.com>
Date: Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 5:18 PM
Subject: How Cameroon pressured mobile operators to shut down the internet
and stifle dissent
To: Cameroon Politics <cameroon_politics at yahoogroups.com>, Njong Cultural
Group <ncuda-us at yahoogroups.com>


How Cameroon pressured mobile operators to shut down the internet and
stifle dissent
<https://qz.com/893401/cameroon-pressured-mtn-and-other-operators-to-shut-down-internet-in-bamenda-buea-regions/>

How Cameroon pressured mobile operators to shut down the internet and
stifl...
By Abdi Latif Dahir
For over a week now, the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon have
not had any access to the internet.
<https://qz.com/893401/cameroon-pressured-mtn-and-other-operators-to-shut-down-internet-in-bamenda-buea-regions/>


Africa <https://qz.com/>
<https://qz.com/search/>OBSESSIONS <https://qz.com/obsessions/>
OUR PICKS <https://qz.com/top/>LATEST <https://qz.com/latest/>POPULAR
<https://qz.com/popular/>
FLICK THE SWITCHHow Cameroon pressured mobile operators to shut down the
internet and stifle dissent[image: Cameroonian police stand near a national
flag during a mass led by Pope Benedict XVI at Amadou Ahidjo stadium in
Yaounde]
One flag. Two countries? (Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi)
SHARE
<https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2F893401&text=How%20Cameroon%20pressured%20mobile%20operators%20to%20shut%20down%20the%20internet%20and%20stifle%20dissent&via=qzafrica>
<https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2F893401%2Fcameroon-pressured-mtn-and-other-operators-to-shut-down-internet-in-bamenda-buea-regions%2F>
<https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2F893401%2Fcameroon-pressured-mtn-and-other-operators-to-shut-down-internet-in-bamenda-buea-regions%2F&title=How%20Cameroon%20pressured%20mobile%20operators%20to%20shut%20down%20the%20internet%20and%20stifle%20dissent&summary=For%20over%20a%20week%20now%2C%20the%20northwest%20and%20southwest%20regions%20of%20Cameroon%20have%20not%20had%20any%20access%20to%20the%20internet.%20But%20details%20surrounding%20the%20internet%E2%80%A6&source=Quartz>
<?subject=Quartz%3A%20How%20Cameroon%20pressured%20mobile%20operators%20to%20shut%20down%20the%20internet%20and%20stifle%20dissent&body=https%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2F893401%2Fcameroon-pressured-mtn-and-other-operators-to-shut-down-internet-in-bamenda-buea-regions%2F%0A%0AFor%20over%20a%20week%20now%2C%20the%20northwest%20and%20southwest%20regions%20of%20Cameroon%20have%20not%20had%20any%20access%20to%20the%20internet.%20But%20details%20surrounding%20the%20internet%E2%80%A6%0A%0ASign%20up%20for%20the%20Quartz%20Daily%20Brief%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2Fquartzdailybrief.>
WRITTEN BYAbdi Latif Dahir <https://qz.com/author/adahirqz/>
OBSESSIONThe Next Billion <https://qz.com/on/the-next-billion//>
January 24, 2017 Quartz Africa <https://qz.com/africa/>
For over a week now, the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon have
not had any access
<https://twitter.com/DynResearch/status/821486316558938112> to the
internet. But details surrounding the internet shutdown in the
English-speaking regions of the country continue to emerge slowly, showing
a government intent on controlling access, operators pressured
<https://qz.com/892433/cameroon-shut-down-the-internet-in-anglophone-regions-like-bamenda-buea/>
to
cut connections, and observers worried about censorship and surveillance.
The internet outage and subsequent block marked the culmination of months
of protests
<https://qz.com/845783/cameroon-protests-are-growing-over-the-anglophone-francophone-split/>
against
the dominance of French-language use in the bilingual country. The
demonstrations reached a new peak
<https://qz.com/881901/the-cameroon-anglophone-francophone-divide-is-playing-out-in-the-deserted-streets-of-bamenda/>
in
early January when protestors stayed at home
<https://qz.com/881901/the-cameroon-anglophone-francophone-divide-is-playing-out-in-the-deserted-streets-of-bamenda/>
to
strike against government marginalization. On Jan. 17, after two days of
riots <http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-africa-38281609> and stay-away by
teachers and lawyers, Akamai, the US-based internet content delivery
company reported sharp drops in internet connectivity in the central
African country.
View image on Twitter
<https://twitter.com/DynResearch/status/821486316558938112/photo/1>
[image: View image on Twitter]
<https://twitter.com/DynResearch/status/821486316558938112/photo/1>

 Follow <https://twitter.com/DynResearch>
Dyn Research @DynResearch <https://twitter.com/DynResearch>
Large outage in #Cameroon <https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cameroon?src=hash> as
reports suggest govt-directed blackout following political arrestshttps://
twitter.com/EricAcha1/status/821473982360809472 … <https://t.co/Pbh5TjoqOr>
5:36 PM - 17 Jan 2017
<https://twitter.com/DynResearch/status/821486316558938112>

   -
   <https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=821486316558938112>
   -
    8383 Retweets
   <https://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=821486316558938112>
   -
    2020 likes <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=821486316558938112>

At the time, mobile phone companies didn’t issue
<http://www.voanews.com/a/cameroon-cuts-internet-in-english-speaking-regions/3682688.html>
any
official statements about the internet cutoff. But new audio recordings and
letters shared by advocacy groups
<http://internetwithoutborders.org/fr/regional-internet-blackout-in-cameroon/>
like
Internet Sans Frontières point to operators who were worried their licenses
would be withdrawn if they didn’t comply with government orders to shut the
internet.
In a recorded phone conversation
<https://soundcloud.com/ameroon/1248776918531895a>, which is alleged to be
a senior MTN executive says the company received written instruction from
the government to suspend internet connectivity as part of their license
conditions particularly when there’s a national security concern.
A widely-circulated letter online from the director of the country’s
national telecommunications company, CAMTEL, also seems to confirm some of
the concerns from the operators. In the letter to the minister for post and
telecommunications, authorities at CAMTEL say they took measures on Jan. 17
and 18 to “coercively enforce your mentioned instructions” to suspend
internet services “in certain sensitive regions.”
View image on Twitter
<https://twitter.com/Dbergeline/status/822798121688305665/photo/1>
[image: View image on Twitter]
<https://twitter.com/Dbergeline/status/822798121688305665/photo/1>

 Follow <https://twitter.com/Dbergeline>
Bergeline DOMOU @Dbergeline <https://twitter.com/Dbergeline>
Quand la souveraineté du Cameroun tient a la suspension d'Internet par
l'État..en y forçant les opérateurs privés #FreeFreedom
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/FreeFreedom?src=hash> #FreeCameroon
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/FreeCameroon?src=hash>
8:28 AM - 21 Jan 2017
<https://twitter.com/Dbergeline/status/822798121688305665>

   -
   <https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=822798121688305665>
   -
    7070 Retweets
   <https://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=822798121688305665>
   -
    1313 likes <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=822798121688305665>

“This is unacceptable,” says Julie Owono, head of the Africa desk at like
Internet Sans Frontières and a Cameroonian herself. “No operator should be
punished or threatened because it respects the UN guiding principle on
business and human rights.” This trend
<https://qz.com/875729/how-african-governments-blocked-the-internet-to-silence-dissent-in-2016/>
in
internet blocks, she said, “shows that more than ever, the fight against
internet shutdown is a matter of human rights, which concerns citizens,
civil society organizations, and business companies.”
Prior to the shutdown, the government had also used telecom companies to send
text messages <https://twitter.com/brett_l_carter/status/823794361003425792> to
subscribers warning them of using social media to spread rumors and false
news. (In Nov. 2015, the speaker of the assembly called social media
<https://qz.com/840118/cameroons-government-is-reacting-to-online-criticism-by-calling-social-media-a-new-form-of-terrorism/>
“a
new form of terrorism.”) After facing criticism online for sending the
messages, operators like MTN responded by saying they sometimes had “to
carry messages on their networks intended for the general public” given
that it came from their principal regulator, the ministry.
View image on Twitter
<https://twitter.com/MTNCameroon/status/820661872034717697/photo/1>
[image: View image on Twitter]
<https://twitter.com/MTNCameroon/status/820661872034717697/photo/1>

 Follow <https://twitter.com/MTNCameroon>
MTN CAMEROON
✔@MTNCameroon <https://twitter.com/MTNCameroon>
@MTNCameroon <https://twitter.com/MTNCameroon> does not engage in
activities that go contrary to the corporate values of the MTNGroup and our
license & concession obligations
11:00 AM - 15 Jan 2017
<https://twitter.com/MTNCameroon/status/820661872034717697>

   -
   <https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=820661872034717697>
   -
    2424 Retweets
   <https://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=820661872034717697>
   -
    2323 likes <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=820661872034717697>

Cameroonian authorities were also able to shut down the internet because
the government-owned CAMTEL operates the fiber optic
<https://qz.com/892433/cameroon-shut-down-the-internet-in-anglophone-regions-like-bamenda-buea/>
backbone
that provides internet to the country. Owono says the government was able
to shut down the internet to specific regions by disconnecting them from
the national or global area network using third party software
<https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-remotely-turn-off-computer-from-lan-or-wan/>
.
“This means that the government ordered internet service providers to
change the routing tables or to cut off the routers with the help of a
software,” Owono says. “Or they can do [the shutdown] with a hardware, by
turning off machines or pulling out cables.”
*Sign up for the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief
<https://qz.com/africa-weekly-brief/> — the most important and interesting
news from across the continent, in your inbox.*

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"ambasbay" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
email to ambasbay+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.



-- 
Aaron Agien NYANGKWE
P.O.Box 5213
Douala-Cameroon
Tel. 237 673 42 71 27
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20170128/a9a7f150/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t

More information about the Governance mailing list