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

[Ben Roberts]

Ish,
Thanks for comment.  The first instance sounds like it should be covered under the definition of Internet shutdowns.

The second issue seems more like a dispute over the delegation of second level TLD resources and is more complex in nature and we would not seek to intervene in that.

We are looking closely on how to improve the definition of internet shutdown and hope to make some proposal amendments.

Thank you for your support.

Kind Regards
Ben

-----Original Message-----
From: Ish Sookun [mailto:ish at lsl.digital] 
Sent: Thursday, May 4, 2017 12:49 PM
To: Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>; Ben Roberts <Ben.Roberts at liquidtelecom.com>; tespok at tespok.co.ke
Cc: rpd <rpd at afrinic.net>
Subject: Anti-Shutdown (AFPUB-2017-GEN-001-DRAFT-01)

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