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Ethiopia Criminalizes VoIP Services

Posted by Soulskill on from the clamping-down-on-0s-and-1s dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Ethiopian government has passed legislation criminalizing the use of VoIP services like Skype and Google Talk. Anyone using these services within the country now faces up to 15 years in prison. 'Ethiopian authorities argue that they imposed these bans because of "national security concerns" and to protect the state's telecommunications monopoly. The country only has one ISP, the state-owned Ethio Telecom, and has been filtering its citizen's Internet access for quite some time now to suppress opposition blogs and other news outlets. ... Reporters Without Borders also reports that Ethio Telecom installed a system to block access to the Tor network, which allows users to surf the Web anonymously. The organization notes that the ISP must be using relatively sophisticated Deep Packet Inspection to filter out this traffic.'"

8 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Devolution by Bananatree3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You're looking at it. Great Britain, USA, Ethiopia, China, Saudi Arabia... are there *any* countries where an internet connection can be had with complete freedom of access and no censorship?

    1. Re:Devolution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      There is no such thing devolution, only evolution in a direction you don't like.

    2. Re:Devolution by Catbeller · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bull. You are revising living memory. Of course it existed. It existed fifteen years ago, everywhere. The tech to listen in on all calls did not exist, nor was it legal. It was absolutely, constitutionally ILLEGAL to spy on citizens in the USA. We talked on the phone and messaged each other in the happy knowledge that it took a court order or Scientology operatives to obtain phone conversations or internet activity. Such things are possible today because our citizens are technologically and politcally illiterate and have absolutely no cultural memory past ALF reruns. The US is stupiding itself to death. OF COURSE WE HAD PRIVACY!! You gave it up!

    3. Re:Devolution by Catbeller · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That wasn't what I addressed. Of course they could tap phones, and they did - with court orders and with records of their taps. One at a time. At least they had to show an interest.

      But now they are listening to ALL OUR CALLS. ALL OF THEM. And when the NSA gets that data center in Utah online next year, they will record. every. single. call. All the web pages visits. No exceptions. No warrants. They will be able to run a timeline backwards on anyone or any group of associates to go a-huntin' crimes or anti-government activity. Forever.

      Address that, not the straw man. We lived in a world without 24/7 spying on every damned thing we do, and now we do, because 1) no cultural memory of a time when it wasn't so 2) kids raised with no civil liberty at school don't get why no liberties as an adult is bad and 3) the tech has changed and 4) the national security state has really metastasized and is spreading across the world as fast as we can sell the equipment.

  2. National Security by Hatta · · Score: 5, Funny

    National Security is a threat to National Security. Anyone who uses National Security as an excuse should be locked up to protect National Security.

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  3. Re:is this the first case.... by YodasEvilTwin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mod parent up. His useful explanation is overshadowed only by the in-depth article he linked to.

  4. Re:Now who will complain about evil carriers in US by dcollins · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wikipedia > Internet censorship by country > Pervasive censorship (the highest level) in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and of course, Iran.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_by_country

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  5. Re:i really hate to break it to you by Githaron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but if you have a thought, and you put it on a wire that leads to a public network, you have just given up your right to privacy

    not legally, but logically

    Do you not expect your (snail) mail to be private? Can your privacy be potentially compromised? Yes, but most still expect it to be private. If it is compromised, the trespasser, when found, is be held accountable. Any communication channel can be potentially compromised. The problem is that most nations don't hold their government accountable.