[Community-Discuss] "Fighting Internet Shutdown" - Any Role for AFRINIC?

[Ali Hussein]

All Internet/Tech related organizations operating in Africa should sign a manifesto explicitly opposing Internet Shutdowns In Africa. These include:-

1. Afrinic
2. All National Tech/Telco Associations 
3. AfTlD and related organizations 
4. Any other related organizations. 

It is clear to me that even if the above organizations do not have the power or powers to deny offending governments critical internet resources the clear message will go a long way in galvanizing the African people in defeating the non sense of Internet shut downs.
 
Ali Hussein
Principal
Hussein & Associates
+254 0713 601113 

Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."  ~ Aristotle


Sent from my iPad

> On 15 Apr 2017, at 7:37 PM, Willy MANGA <mangawilly at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi ,
> (speaking in my own capacity)
> 
>> Le 13/04/2017 à 10:21, Seun Ojedeji a écrit :
>> <Taking this to the community list, where it belongs>
>> 
>> Dear Community,
>> 
>> [...]
>> One other thing that comes to mind is whether AFRINIC can be pro-active
>> instead of re-active i.e they are made aware of the planned act and issue
>> strong statement against it hoping that it will get to the ears of relevant
>> authorities and get them to reconsider. This may also be effective if the
>> relationship between AFRINIC and the AU (and regional bodies like ECOWAS,
>> EAC, COMESA etc) is strengthened as that can serve as a channel of
>> communication to the respective governments.
> 
> From my personal understanding whatever is the motivation behind the
> shutdown, some states act like that because they see the Internet as
> something very strange and dangerous because they do not have the *full*
> control.
> I use to compare it to people who have not followed any life-saving
> class. When there is fire, they are afraid and run about instead of
> following safety instructions.
> 
> Many don't know at all (or they are realizing a little bit) what the
> Internet is. It's usual to see people who compare Internet to some
> social networks for instance.
> Many people don't know that social networks is a fraction of the web
> which itself is a fraction of the Internet. (You should thank some big
> players for their marketing here; they did it best unfortunately)
> 
> Internet does/should not belong to any entity,individual. Here is the
> biggest issue for any state. They look for ways to gain more and more
> control. Those who do not master the keys of their national
> infrastructure cut all or a part of the services. Those who master all
> their infrastructure capture traffic,analyse it and decide on how to
> proceed with that data. In Africa we are generally on the first case.
> Whatever the case, this issue should be addressed to ICANN in my humble
> opinion. AFRINIC can discuss it within ASO.
> 
> Moreover on a continental level, in addition to what Seun has suggested
> above in order to help them better understand what is this «beast», I
> think they need more capacity building training at different levels
> (technical,administrative,..) and on various topics. We all know that
> these trainings exist but they should continue.
> I read that their participation within AfGWG was low; we should help our
> States understand that they have to really participate, give their
> opinions and discuss. Their low participation contribute a little bit to
> the situation where you see a proposal emerge within the community on
> whether or not AFRINIC should take some actions when an internet
> shutdown occurs.
> 
> At last, I'm not convinced that international pressure will always be
> the better solution (or even the solution). Most of us here are citizen
> of a country in Africa. Those who participate here are very aware of the
> importance of the Internet. We should push forward debate (and actions)
> in our respective country on these issue. It's not easy at all, trust me
> (speaking for my country) but that should be the way forward. We have to
> be responsible at all our different levels and help our national
> ecosystem grow because we cannot evolve if we do not study/contribute to
> RFC, deploy root servers system, build IXP, use IPv6, sign our zones,
> ...  If we do not understand and contribute on all that matters we will
> always run about when we'll have the feeling that «the danger» comes
> from the Internet.
> 
> The solutions should come *at first* from the citizen, entities of each
> country.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Willy Manga
> freenode: ongolaBoy
> Ubuntu Cameroonian Loco Team
> https://launchpad.net/~manga-willy
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Community-Discuss mailing list
> Community-Discuss at afrinic.net
> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/attachments/20170415/f0a1d575/attachment.html>