Syria & Sudan Hoping That Greater Social Network Use Will Keep Regimes In Power

from the interesting-reaction dept

With the protests leading to political change in Tunisia and Egypt getting so much attention (including for the role played by social media as a part of that), there have been questions about what country is "next." So it's interesting to see that the governments in both Syria and Sudan appear to think that social media tools may work more in their favor than against them. Wired reports that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, an indicted war criminal, has announced that he wants to extend computer and internet usage among the youth, in the belief that young, connected people will "combat opposition" to the regime, rather than enhance it.

Meanwhile over in Syria, the government has lifted (widely ignored) bans on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as part of an attempt to create a "new era" in the Middle East.

Whether or not either of these strategies will work for the regimes in charge remains to be seen -- but it's yet another reminder that technology does not inherently favor any particular party, but can be put to use for very different purposes by different groups.

Filed Under: internet, social networks, sudan, syria

Turns Out Egypt Did Have An Internet Kill Switch

from the flip-the-switch dept

After Egypt shut off internet access a few weeks back, most of the analysis of how it was done suggested in basically involved calling all of the country's ISPs and ordering them to shut down access. Yet, a new report claims it really was more of a "kill switch" scenario, in that the majority of the shut-off came from flipping a single switch in the Ramses exchange -- a key data center in Cairo. That didn't stop everything, so the rest was accomplished with a few phone calls -- but it was that switch flip that did most of the work.

The same report notes, as we predicted, that the economic impact of the shutdown were pretty big:

The presentation suggests the weeklong shutdown had severe effects on Egypt’s economy, in the short term from loss of commerce, and in the long term from a likely plummet in tourism, and an exodus of call centers from Egypt.

The presentation concludes that the ministry’s course of action in obeying the orders may have some positive effects in the future: “Itʼs unlikely that Egyptʼs communications ministry will ever be asked to flip that switch again.”

Well, hopefully it also makes other countries aware of the negative impacts of killing off internet access.

Filed Under: egypt, internet, kill switch

Katie Couric And Bryant Gumbel Discover The Internet

from the ah,-discovery dept

A whole bunch of people have been sending in this video, which has already gone viral, of Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric having a very confused discussion about the internet on The Today Show way back in 1994 (at which point the internet really was not that obscure): It kicks off with a debate over how to pronounce the @ symbol, with Gumbel properly saying "at," but being unsure of himself, after Couric suggests maybe it's "about." This is even though @ was the "at" symbol well before the internet. Then there's a conversation as they're totally confused by the email address that is put on the screen and what it means, leading up to Gumbel declaring in a frustrated voice:

"What is internet anyway?"

Eventually someone tries to explain it, and Gumbel seems to just get more frustrated and incredulous:

How does one... what is it? What do you write to it, like mail?!?"

It's not like they're supposed to be reporters or anything, who can do some research to find out what it is they're talking about...

Filed Under: bryant gumbel, internet, katie couric, today show

Egypt Turns Internet Back On For Same Reason It Was Turned Off: To Try To Quell Protests

from the well,-that-worked dept

As has been widely reported today, Egypt has rejoined the internet, after the government told ISPs that it was okay to reconnect to the world nearly a week after it shut off the internet. What's fascinating to me, however, is the basic thinking on both moves. The idea behind shutting down the internet (and mobile phone service) was to try to cut off the ability of protesters to communicate and organize, hoping that it would stifle the protests themselves. Of course, it seemed to only add to the fire, inciting even more anger towards the government, and contributing to even greater numbers of protests. So, now, the reasoning for removing the blocks... is basically the same thing. The government seems to think that letting people back onto the internet will also quell the protests. Perhaps they just shouldn't have turned the internet off in the first place. Either way, this seems like yet another example of governments realizing that it's a lot more difficult to "control" the public than they thought...

Filed Under: control, egypt, internet, protests

Why Have We Let State AGs Become De Facto Internet Regulators?

from the grandstanding-is-no-way-to-make-laws dept

For quite some time we've called attention to the fact that various state Attorneys General have taken it upon themselves to pressure internet companies to change their policies, often with little or no actual legal authority to do so. It usually takes the form of very public shaming and grandstanding suggesting something illegal has been done, even if that's not the case. Last year, we highlighted a must read piece by Topix CEO Chris Tolles, who had just been on the receiving end of such grandstanding by a bunch of state AGs. The story is disturbing, but enlightening. In the end, he realized it was impossible to fight this, and like most others, he caved. It was the only reasonable response. As Tolles pointed out, at no point in this process was Topix ever explicitly accused of breaking any laws:

Pissed off people, not illegality, is the issue to watch -- At no time during this process were we accused of breaking any laws. The Attorneys General have interpreted their mandate of consumer protections very broadly, and if a lot of people *think* you are doing something wrong, you are likely to be headed for a problem.

This is worrying for any number of reasons. Adam Thierer is pointing out how it appears that state AGs have effectively become the internet's new regulators, with little actual legal authority. He focuses on how many of these actions seem to also involve National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) -- a group that actually does plenty of really good work. I'd argue that it goes way beyond NCMEC, as we've seen this happen beyond just that group's complaints. Thierer's reasonably concerned about the questions this raises, even in cases where law enforcement should be stepping in and helping. The problem is that this isn't the role that AGs are really meant to play. It opens all sorts of questions about the actual enforceability and legality of the "settlement" agreements that come out of these attacks, and whether they represent any real precedent. More importantly, it would seem that many of these agreements could very well violate the Commerce Clause, as states are not supposed to be able to regulate interstate commerce. This is a worrying trend that I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty more about in the near future.

Filed Under: attorneys general, internet, regulations

The Impact Of Egypt Cutting Itself Off From The Internet

from the could-be-pretty-big dept

As the news came out late Monday that the last remaining independent ISP, who had remained online in Egypt, has now turned off its connection to the wider internet as well, people are beginning to explore what this all means. Andrew McLaughlin, who until recently was the deputy CTO of the Obama administration, has penned a thoughtful article for the Guardian noting how this emphasizes how infrastructure really matters and how limited competition allows these situations to develop:

The internet cutoff shows how the details of infrastructure matter. Despite having no large-scale or centralised censorship apparatus, Egypt was still able to shut down its communications in a matter of minutes. This was possible because Egypt permitted only three wireless carriers to operate, and required all internet service providers (ISPs) to funnel their traffic through a handful of international links. Confronted with mass demonstrations and fearful about a populace able to organise itself, the government had to order fewer than a dozen companies to shut down their networks and disconnect their routers from the global internet.

But, perhaps the bigger question is how will the cut off actually impact the Egyptian economy and wider society as a whole. It's really quite amazing how integrated the internet has become in all our lives, and it really has become a fundamental part of the economy and how we live. Pulling the plug on the internet in a decently large country has serious ramification both inside the country (most seriously) and outside:

A central unknown at this moment is what the economic harm to the country will be. Without internet and voice networks, Egyptians are losing transactions and deals, their stocks and commodities cannot be traded, their goods are halted on frozen transportation networks, and their bank deposits are beyond reach.

Also unknown is how many Egyptians have been harmed in non-economic ways – as human beings. As things stand, a worried mother who has not heard from her son or daughter can't send an email or check Facebook for a status update. A witness to violence or abuse can't seek help, document responsibility, or warn others via Twitter or a blog.

Life-saving information is inaccessible. Healthy, civil debate about the future is squashed. And in the absence of trustworthy news, firsthand reports and real-time images, rumour and fear flourish. In all those ways, the total internet cutoff undermines the government's own interest in restoring calm and order.

I imagine that there will be numerous case studies that come out of this unfortunate situation, based on what happens. One can only hope that the actual harms aren't as bad as they might be.

Filed Under: andrew mclaughlin, connectivity, egypt, internet

Probably Not The Best Time To Introduce Legislation That Can Be Described As Having An 'Internet Kill Switch'

from the that's-not-going-to-fly dept

We've already discussed how, contrary to the claims of some, there really isn't an attempt to create "an internet kill switch" in the US. There is a (admittedly bad) proposal concerning how the US would respond in the event of some sort of "cyber attack." The proposal itself would allow the government to mandate how certain "critical infrastructure" pieces of the internet should respond in the event of such an attack. What isn't explained is why such a legal mandate is really needed. If you're running the Hoover Dam, say, (and stupidly have important infrastructure connected to the internet) and the feds point out a way to avoid or minimize an ongoing hack attack, are you really going to say no?

That said, since the bill has falsely been described as having an internet kill switch, it seems like particularly bad timing to re-introduce it now, just after Egypt actually did pull out its own version of an internet kill switch.

While it may be a good thing that this bill gets killed off no matter what (since it is a bad piece of legislation), I'm a bit worried by how quickly everyone has jumped on this "internet kill switch" claim to describe it. What happened in Egypt is important to pay attention to and to learn from, but it doesn't mean that we should immediately jump to the conclusion that that's what the US is trying to do. There are serious problems with the bill, and we should discuss those, rather than just calling it an internet kill switch, when that's not what's in the bill.

Filed Under: internet, kill switch, politics, regulations

A Look At How Egypt Shut Down The Internet

from the a-few-phone-calls dept

With Egypt taking the extreme step of shutting down the internet last week, a lot of people started wondering just how does a country go about doing that. According to a report by Ryan Singel at Wired, the answer appears to be with a series of phone calls to ISPs. Wired published this telling image from Arbor Networks, that shows just how dramatic the cut off was: The report notes that while there isn't anything like a big red "stop the internet" button, and there are a variety of different internet providers, it's still possible to shut them all down with just a few phone calls. And you can kind of see that in the fact that the turn off didn't all happen exactly at once, but there were a series of drops over the course of a few hours, leading up to that big drop off. The report does note that at least one ISP, Noor, appears to still be operating, which appears to represent that tiny bit of blue at the bottom of the chart.

It looks like ISPs as a bottleneck may be yet another piece of internet infrastructure that's a bit too centralized.

Filed Under: egypt, internet, shutdown

Hulu Owners Looking To Make Hulu Even More Useless

from the you-can't-disrupt-yourself dept

It's been almost two years since we suggested it might be impossible for Hulu to survive, given that it was in a bit of a "rock and a hard place" situation. The only way for it to really succeed long-term online was to disrupt the existing TV business. Because, if it didn't do that, others could and would kill Hulu. However, Hulu is owned by the existing TV business, and that means the company can't do what it needs to do. The WSJ is reporting that NBC management is upset with the way Hulu is undercutting its current business model, and is now pushing to change Hulu entirely into an "online cable channel" rather than an aggregator and service for watching television shows. Of course, as many are pointing out, this would almost certainly kill off Hulu.

This is all pretty unfortunate. From a technical standpoint, Hulu appears to be a great service. The only thing really holding it back has been a bunch of owners and licensees who think that the path to the future is to apply all sorts of limitations on what can be done with their content. That's the exact opposite of the path to success these days. Putting limitations on content is not the solution. Enabling people to do more with your content is the solution. Hulu put in place a platform that could do that... but it's owners are choosing to go in a totally different direction, and they don't even seem to realize that they're making a huge mistake.

Filed Under: cable, disruption, innovation, internet, pay tv, tv
Companies: comcast, hulu, nbc universal

Netflix Shows Which ISPs Actually Perform Well... And Which Don't

from the ah,-data dept

It's always fun to discover some data that reveals some useful info -- and the folks over at Netflix have apparently realized that they're sitting on a treasure trove of data concerning the performance levels of various ISPs, based on all that content Netflix is streaming. Rather than just keep it all internally, Netflix is starting to publish the data, showing how well certain ISPs perform, and highlighting how you generally get better performance out of cable than DSL. This is smart on Netflix's part, as it actually does a nice job encouraging ISPs to improve their quality, knowing that they can tout these kinds of "independent" rankings to show their overall quality.

Filed Under: bandwidth, cable, dsl, internet
Companies: netflix