[rpd] Anti-Shutdown (AFPUB-2017-GEN-001-DRAFT-01)

[Ish Sookun]

Hi Andrew, Ben, Fiona,

There are at least two known occasions where the government interfered
with the internet in Mauritius.

  (i) in 2007 when the government requested a Facebook ban;
  (ii) in 2014 when the government failed in renewal negotiations of
gov.mu and possibly asked [1][2] a local ISP to continue resolve gov.mu
through its name servers.

The first event was supported [3] by the local ICT regulator. The
definition of "internet shutdown" should be changed so that it cannot be
easily circumvented:

  2.9 Internet Shutdown: A government ordered blocking access to the
general or part of the internet. Said definition does not preclude a
government from censoring content that is not legally permissible within
the laws of said country, on the provision that said censorship is
pursuant to a court order.

Regards,

Ish Sookun

[1]
https://www.lexpress.mu/article/254648/site-govmu-pas-accessible-aux-etrangers
[2] http://www.elandsys.com/~sm/www-gov-mu-inaccessible.html
[3]
https://www.lexpress.mu/article/trilock-dwarka-pourquoi-licta-bloqu%C3%A9-%C2%ABfacebook%C2%BB