Slashdot Mirror
Internet Blackout in Myanmar Stalls Citizen Report
StonyandCher writes "The government in Myanmar has reportedly cut off Internet access in the troubled country.
The loss of Internet access in Myanmar has slowed the tide of photos and videos shared with the rest of the world but people outside of the troubled country continue to use new media sites and other technologies to protest military activity in the Southeast Asia country."
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I guess the famous quote about the internet treating censorship like damage and routing around it doesn't do much good to the people who's government controls their internet...
... is exactly why you don't want to destroy the utility of the HF radio spectrum to sell it to broadband-over-power-line Internet providers.
You don't want to put all of your communication eggs in one government-controlled basket.
Time to start using pigeons (or smoke signals) to get information ...
I wonder what sort of compression would have to be used to get a fairly good speed connection?
Everything is subjective.
The first thing an oppressive government usually does when unrest is rising is to make sure independent news and reports can't escape, so the only source for information is the official one. They actually took their time to do that, given that the civil war has started almost half a month ago.
Well, maybe their astrologer said they should wait 2 more weeks 'cause then the stars are aligned or something.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I guess this goes back to the idea that if you can control the information going to and from people, you can control the people themselves. It is really a statement of where the internet is today in terms of importance around the world. I would like to see if anyone from this country manages to make an "underground" makeshift connection to the internet. Also, does any one else find it interesting that the group forming together to protest for the rights of the monks is on facebook?
As much as I detest those self-indulgent tyrants that make up the government (check youtube for the wedding of the generals daughter from last year complete with diamond necklace, champagne etc. reminiscent of the party the Shah in Iran threw before he got deposed by the Iranian revolution, also lead by clerics), judging by all the leaked photos I've seen so far they are actually trying their best not to escalate the situation. They will use force in the form of beating were the crowd may get out of hand (as any riot police would) and they seem to reserve the bullets only for a select few, such as ring-leaders or the press (e.g. the Japanese photographer - it almost looked liked he was surgically picked off by a sniper), hence the low number of confirmed casualties.
Would it be possible for the open source community to launch a project to essentially make it impossible for a government to cut off its own people from the outside world? Not simply to overcome the great firewall of China, but a type of watchdog system that can spring into action at a time like this.
In other words, is there anything we in the open source community can do to tangibly help the monks in Burma, or any monks the future may bring?
Where's the US Army now? Come on! There's a troubled country that needs to be freed! Come on, there's repression, censorship, people are getting killed! You HAVE to free them, you need to restore peace! Just like you did with Iraq. What's that? Myanmar doesn't have oil like Iraq? What does it have to do with it? You didn't go to Iraq because of the oil, did you? You didn't attack Iraq for revenge for the 9/11, did you?
I have never used a satellite internet provider, but I know that they do exist. Could someone on slashdot explain what is required for such service? I assume a modem which would be registered with a satellite provider. What is the feasibility of smuggling such things into Burma?
Myanmar == Burma
It has large quantities of oil and gas...
WTF do you think there are problems in the place all of a sudden? Do you think it's coincidence there are problems and unrest in oil producing countries now that world oil production has fallen for the last few years?
http://www.worldoil.com/INFOCENTER/STATISTICS_DETAIL.asp?Statfile=_worldoilproduction
Deleted
But China called dibs.
the parent is packing heavy punch, and you all know it. use your mod points wisely instead of political nitpicking. or dont use them at all.
Read radical news here
What about phone lines? Surely I'm not the only one old enough to ask whether people can dial out to international dial-up lines. It'd only take a relative abroad to hook up their broadband-connected PC to their old phone modem and unless your line is tapped it'd be just another phone call to the family.
as someone mentioned before, call the country Burma. That's the name which signifies that you don't accept the legitimacy of the murders who have stolen the country and ruled over it for all these years.
Also, I don't get the anti-bush tag, he seems to be doing a lot more than most to help the situation...
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Isn't this shit sad? I mean, a tyrannical military government that nobody wants in power, who's abusing that power by willfully shooting civilians. Of course, our leaders don't give a rats ass beyond talking about how "concerned" or "saddened" or "disappointed" because Myanmar doesn't have any oil, or strategic position we can use.
I'm not trying to say Iraq wasn't justified. It doesn't matter. Whether it was or not, I think Myanmar's military rulers need a good ass-kicking. And there's an ass we could kick overnight if we wanted to. Just bust in there to their headquarters and fire some automatic weapons at them just the same way they do to the innocent monks. That'll teach 'em. Throw in an election to put up a REAL government, and we'd be home by Christmas.
The UN has a Declaration of Human Rights, applicable to all humans, regardless of citizenship, etc.
Maybe globally blocking access to share information for political purposes should be declared as crime against humanity and politicians, trying to pull the plug should face the chance that they will be brought to internatinal court.
Burma DOES have oil. Chevron (US) and Total (French) are two of the biggest benefactors. China, Russia and India all have billions invested as well. So long as the money keeps coming, no one seems to care who is in power or how they exercise it...
This has absolutely no relevance to the story whatsoever. Why are the moderators abusing their mod points yet agaain?
Burma is a very resource-rich country. The problem is that rather than the wealth going to the people, it is funneled into the pockets of the military generals (who then splurge on their daughters' weddings)
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Burma has tons of oil. Chevron and Total are the two Western companies profiting the most, but China, India and Russia all have significant (read multi-BILLION dollar) investments as well..
something being overused does not mean that it will be misused every time that it is used.
Read radical news here
I am certainly no fan of Dubya, however I heard today that the administration might see democracy for the Burmese people as their last chance to go down in the history books as something other than a laughing stock. If this is true and Bush keeps the world's attention focused on Burma for the next few weeks then that will be a positive development for the people there.
Of course, this doesn't excuse any of their behaviour in other parts of the world *cough*iraq*cough*afghanistan*cough*
Myanmar has loads of oil. And it's all going to China. Which supports the military government of Myanmar.
Nothing new.
Just boycott China. Products, government, etc. as much as you can. Ignore the Olympics. Don't participate.
Pressure them constantly on environment, work conditions, rights, etc.
Nothing will change in Myanmar until pressure comes from China. But not likely, considering what they do in Tibet, etc.
Your understanding of the issues surrounding this situation seem to be extremely poor, and the observations made in the post you are defending are equally ignorant and childish.
The situation for the US, or any Western government which might want to get involved militarily in Myanmar today is simple - involve your military today in Myanmar, and you will almost certainly find yourself facing the very threatening military might of China, their strongest ally.
It would require you reading maybe half of one of the dozens of articles written about the Myanmar mess in the last week or so to understand this. I'm actually kind of disgusted with the laziness displayed in this forum, but I guess it's nothing new. Go back to digg or whatever, seriously.
If they've cut off every single international phone line you can still radio data in and out. People tend to think that going high tech is the way to break out of these kinds of situations - e.g. satellites etc. - when often going back to flashing light semaphore or carrier pigeon is more likely to succeed.
Losing the connection to Burma slightly, the Romans employed four flags on poles to communicate messages up and down Hadrian's Wall. In ideal conditions they could get a 4-bit message from one end to the other (70-something miles) in a matter of seconds - that's a pretty good bitrate for something with no electricity behind it. Granted you can't get streaming video of monks being beaten up at that kind of bandwidth but radio's a different story.
And setting up mobile radio stations is probably easier than installing a massive communications line of wooden poles without the military noticing. Many brave individuals carefully concealed both receivers and transmitters throughout occupied Europe often at great personal risk, for example. Communications routed around damage even back then. I'm sure there are people within that country right now beaming data out. I wonder where messages in bottles cast out on their beaches would wash ashore. You could squeeze quite a bit of memory into a bottle.
Anyway, I think what I'm rambling about is that there's always a way. I just hope there are enough people with the balls out there taking these risks and, much more importantly, I hope that their messages do not fall on deaf ears. Sadly I feel some of the more powerful countries, who might otherwise be in a position to levy some immense pressure on the Burmese junta, are somewhat under-staffed at the moment. Although it's fair to say that some other countries - that are most definitely not under-staffed - remain on the outside of this affair for rather more cryptic and apparently self-serving reasons.
All said with humble and awkward apologies for commenting on the topic while enjoying a comfortable yet-to-be-oppressed privileged lifestyle.
the American firm Fortinet, which runs the Myanmar Wide Web.
Protect your liberties. Donate to the ACLU
It's a shame their internet's down because they won't be able to get access to this: http://paultan.org/archives/2004/11/29/rfc1149-cpip/
I'd gladly donate money for the equipment/bandwidth costs, but I don't even know where to begin looking. Perhaps a pro-democracy Burmese group or some such.
At any rate, thanks for your input.
If we start tunneling through the phone lines, governments can just cut the cables there too (except for "official" uses of course). Ground-based communication in general is trickier with Burma due to low resources and dense jungle. Satellites are a good idea, and they are already being used to document Myanmar atrocities. Tech isn't good enough to get detailed accounts of the protests (only stuff the people are actually *protesting* like the civilian relocations and shelling of villages), but it's a good start.
"Burma" is the name given to the country by the British colonialists who didn't bother to learn the language. Myanmar was not "given" to the country by the junta, as it was used for that region for centuries and still is a term used by the locals whether or not they oppose the junta. If anything "Burma" is the politically charged name! What's in the name anyway? What matters is your position and whether or not you are willing to help, not what name you use. Using "Burma" signifies next to nothing.
It's somewhat strange to see people getting all riled up about some country they wouldn't even be able to point to on a map let alone know anything about language/culture/history from that region apart from what's suddenly being broadcast on TV and blogs. (By this I don't necessariy mean the parent, but certain other pos(t)ers, but i guess it's to be expected)
why USA doesn't bring democracy also to Myanmar?
USA has enough soldiers to run a war down there against
the local government.... that can be a great thing...
but...
wait...
sorry! not enough oil downthere... it belongs to China.
too bad!
this is getting out of control
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Funny that every time something like this happens, it always seems to be traceable back to the USA. China, Burma, but in the end, it's the bloody yanks providing the tools for censorship.
So much for the "land of the free"...
i didnt see any hesitation from anybody on the face of the world on bush & co part when they decided to invade iraq.
no sir, methinks you need to read a lot of 'articles' and actual late politics history before putting out such brilliant theories belittling other arguments.
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But it's so incredibly stupid. Apart from being elitist - don't they care about publicity? Why would anyone want to post on a site that requires entering one's birthday for viewing? Is it that pornographic?
Now that the Internet has effectively been cut off, perhaps we can enjoy slightly less of the "isn't the internet wonderful" kind of bullshit spiel we've been hearing on the major news channels recently.
... every interview (and I mean every last one) with "a knowledgeable person from 1st world country" has degenerated very quickly away from the actual point, i.e. "PEOPLE ARE FUCKING DYING OUT THERE DUE TO A MILITIA RUN GOVERNMENT", and end up being another chance to advertise their website's media uploading facility.
...
Both CNN and BBC World are equally guilty of it
"Yes, it's a terrible crisis out there, but isn't it wonderful that we have the spiffy internet so people can send us the pictures of monks getting shot in the head".
No mention of the tragedy of the actual event, no criticism of the military itself, just an exposition on the merits of being able to post a poorly compressed MPEG posted on a BBS.
FFS. What has the world come to ???
Maybe now they can focus on the actual problem
If there was a decent quantity of oil out there, that the Chinese and the Indians hadn't already bagged, the good old U.S. would have been out there like a shot.
But there's no way for U.S. to get it's greasy mitts on more oil, so both them and the U.N. will sit back and do nothing, like they have done for the past 19 years since the last "uprising".
So I guess it's up to the people of Myanmar to fend for themselves eh ?
Perhaps we need a Myanmarese (?) resident in the U.S. to blow something up first, or possibly start taking flying lessons ?
Sorry for my venom here, but is just pisses me off the double standards employed by the western world with regard to 3rd world countries in strife, which in most cases boils down to "how much oil can we get as a reward for saving their asses".
Does Burma have an amateur radio community? Packet radio would be great for transferring all types of information. So would 4gb flash drives attached to carrier pigeons.
Except that his skin color still determines how he will be treated. So the caste system still applies to him, especially if his skin is very dark.
Actually, the government of Myanmar runs the Myanmar Wide Web. Software produced by Fortinet, but not administered, supervised or maintained by Fortinet, is used by the government of Myanmar to censor the MWW.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
ENTIRE world have opposed bush invasion of iraq, but blair. not only china.
Read radical news here
Wasn't the internet supposed to be able to survive a nuclear war? I know Burma is a poor country with few resources; still, this turn of events doesn't give much support to the notion that the 'net is nearly impossible to crash.
Hack the military regime sites linked below
http://www.blog.thesietch.org/2007/09/29/hackers-unite-for-burmese-freedom/
Replace them with pictures of wounded protesters etc.
Here's your chance to make a change, 1337 !!
Bloggers and other cyber activists within Burma risk their lives by publishing any information counter to the government line, but they still do it because they believe that freedom of expression is worth that sacrifice.
You don't have to make such a sacrifice, but if you have computer skills, can breach firewalls, routers and web site security then you could greatly assist the people of Burma. By taking down official Burmese government propaganda and posting pictures, information about the protests, information about the lies of the Burmese junta, and news of the huge support being offered by the rest of the world - preferably in Burmese - then you could help free the people from this terrible regime.
Wikipedia says
.mm websites down
According to the OpenNet Initiative [6], FortiGuard is used by the dictatorship of Myanmar (Burma) to block communications critical of the regime carried over the internet, a system known as the Myanmar Wide Web [7].
Meanwhile, the Myanmar government features its adoption of the Fortinet firewall on its official website [9] with other photos showing a Fortinet sales director presenting a gift to the Myanmar Prime Minister during a ceremony [10].
Just giving him a gift, hmm ?
Take these f*ckers
http://www.blog.thesietch.org/2007/09/29/hackers-unite-for-burmese-freedom
Bloggers and other cyber activists within Burma risk their lives by publishing any information counter to the government line, but they still do it because they believe that freedom of expression is worth that sacrifice.
You don't have to make such a sacrifice, but if you have computer skills, can breach firewalls, routers and web site security then you could greatly assist the people of Burma. By taking down official Burmese government propaganda and posting pictures, information about the protests, information about the lies of the Burmese junta, and news of the huge support being offered by the rest of the world - preferably in Burmese - then you could help free the people from this terrible regime.
Did someone shit on your face recently?
You can still upload a lot of photos over a 9600bps international-phone-call PPP connection.
I hope the Burma exile community is setting up modem pools worldwide for just this purpose and finding some way to get them to the Burma underground.
Does SkypeIn handle low-speed modem connections? Surely it can do 300bps but I doubt it can do 33.3K. With SkypeIn, it should be easy to get phone numbers that are a cheap call from Burma.
Color faxes also work wonders. Do they work over SkypeIn?
Methinks it's time to smuggle in some satellite phones just in case they close off that route.
You can't silence censorshi
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Software produced by Fortinet, but not administered, supervised or maintained by Fortinet, is used by the government of Myanmar to censor the MWW.
Yes, you're quite right. Fortinet are only making money out of the situation and therefore should be entirely excused of any suggestion of wrongdoing. Likewise anyone selling arms to the Burmese government should also be excused because they're not the ones actually shooting monks in the fucking head.
If you disagree with my comparison, please do feel free to let us know exactly where the difference lies.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortinet, they utilize a 100% indirect sales model. So how again can you actually demonize this company?
Karma: Positive. Mostly effected by cowbell.
burma and partner in crime fortinet - yes, as mentioned. fortinet is a us company !!!
This country is among the very worst enemies of Internet freedom and in many ways its policies are worse than China's. The price of computers and a home Internet connection is prohibitive so Internet cafés are the target of the military regime's scrutiny. As in neighbouring Vietnam and China, access to opposition sites is systematically blocked, in this case with technology supplied by the US firm Fortinet. Burma's censorship is special - Web-based e-mail, such as Yahoo! or Hotmail, cannot be used and all Internet café computers record every five minutes the screen being consulted, to spy on what customers are doing.
http://www.blog.thesietch.org/2007/09/29/hackers-unite-for-burmese-freedom/
Regime sites include
http://www.myanmar.com/
http://www.myanmar.com/news/index.html
http://www.mrtv3.net.mm/ (blocked from external access)
http://www.mofa.gov.mm/ (blocked from external access)
http://www.moha.gov.mm/ (blocked from external access)
http://www.mpt.net.mm/ (blocked from external access)
http://www.myanmar-information.net/
http://www.myanmar.com/myanmartimes/
http://www.mnped.gov.mm/ (blocked from external access)
http://www.myanmar.com/newspaper/kyaymon/index.html
http://www.myanmar.com/newspaper/nlm/index.html
Actually, many of those sites have already been hacked in the past...
http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/08/01/www.myanmar.com/
A bunch of the government sites got defaced before that too, but i can't find the mirror sites.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
The link is to a cache of the official www.myanmar.gov.mm site, which is now down and replaced with another one, cleansed of all refs to Fortinet.
I wonder why they have an indirect sales model and don't restrict the actions of their licensees? Perhaps they just don't care who uses their software, and to what ends. If their sales director was there actively selling the software, it looks to me like they don't care.
respect to the ones who succeeded before
***
This Defacement is brought to you by Danny-Boy of X-ORG
In memories of The fallen heroes who gave up their lives during 1988 Democracy Uprising in Burma.
***
> and don't restrict the actions of their licensees?
Exactly, almost every other US software company has this in their license. For example, Apple:
6. Export Law Assurances. You may not use or otherwise export or reexport the Apple Software except as authorized by United States law and the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Apple Software was obtained. In particular, but without limitation, the Apple Software may not be exported or reexported (i) into (or to a national or resident of) any U.S. embargoed country or (ii) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Department of Commerce's Table of Denial Orders. By using the Apple Software, you represent and warrant that you are not located in, under control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list.
Fortisnet is selling to a bloody regime and trying to play innocent by using an indirect sales model. Let these f*ckers in sunny Sunnyvale know. I'm speaking of Fortinet, not Apple.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortinet
Don't look at me. I don't actually care that much about the issue. But if you're so convinced there is no difference, how about you explain why your computer is full of parts made in China, what with China being the Burmese dictatorship's major backer and arms supplier? Is there a difference, or have you convinced me that your hands are just as bloody as Fortinet's?
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.