[governance] [bestbits] Please Cameroon did not shut down the Internet !!!

[Chris Prince Udochukwu Njoku]

Thoughtful comments, gentlemen and ladies.

While Janvier's attempt to give the context of the incident is welcome, I
wholly agree with Nonhlanhla that nothing whatsoever justifies Internet
shutdown, and with Remmy that denial of Internet to one Cameroonian should
bother an online Cameroonian irrespective of regional provenance.

I strongly think that this incident and similar ones in some other
countries point to a challenge that is more critical than how to resolve an
issue of some country nationals being forced offline by their government.
This case triggers salient questions about the credibility of
multi-stakeholderism. Among such questions are:

1. If the Internet is being multi-stakeholder-governed, why must a
stakeholder exercise unilateral authority, in utter disregard of other
stakeholders?

2. Is governmental incessant exercise of veto over the Internet not a clear
indication of non-acceptance of multi-stakeholder governance of the
Internet by governments? And how can this be tackled?

Best,
CPU

On 27 Jan 2017 3:55 pm, "Mueller, Milton L" <milton at gatech.edu> wrote:

Thanks Joash for the explanation. This is what I expected when I heard of
the shutdown. Such shutdowns are inherently rights violations. It allows
political elites to assert blanket control over all communications and
typically it is their own power and security, not the benefit of the
population, that is advanced by these indiscriminate shutdowns. The tension
between Anglophone and Francophone speakers in that country is well known
and it’s inexcusable to see minority regions isolated and abused in this
way.



Dr. Milton L Mueller

Professor, School of Public Policy <http://spp.gatech.edu/>

Georgia Institute of Technology

Internet Governance Project

http://internetgovernance.org/







This is a vital interesting topic. Having lived in Cameroon for 3 years, I
would say that the shutdown in these two region is no different from
shutdowns witnessed in Uganda and Gambia for instance. It is simply the
political elite using their political influence to prevent the human rights
violations calling for federation in these areas. The two areas made up of
Anglophones, who have been marginalized largely because of their language
and their calls for federation have been met by internet shutdown and full
force of security agents. It is this that the Cameroon government does not
want to be easily distributed within the social media.



Joash

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