Congo Shuts Down Internet Services 'Indefinitely' (nytimes.com)

On Saturday Engadget wrote: Authoritarian leaders are fond of severing communications in a bid to hold on to power, and that tradition sadly isn't going away. The Democratic Republic of Congo's government has ordered telecoms to cut internet and SMS access ahead of planned mass protests against President Joseph Kabila, whose administration has continuously delayed elections to replace him. Telecom minister Emery Okundji told Reuters that it was a response to "violence that is being prepared," but people aren't buying that argument. Officials had already banned demonstrations, and the country has history of cutting communications and blocking social network access in a bid to quash dissent.
And today in the wake of deadly protests, Congo announced that the internet shutdown will continue "indefinitely." The New York Times reports: At least eight people were killed and a dozen altar boys arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday after security forces cracked down on planned church protests against President Joseph Kabila's refusal to leave office before coming elections... Congolese security forces set up checkpoints across Kinshasa, and the government issued an order to shut down text messaging and internet services indefinitely across the country for what it called "reasons of state security."

Comments

contingency question

[beckett]

I'm interested in any good ideas, countermeasures, rube goldberg devices that could be employed in or outside of a country like DRC that could restore, maintain, or circumvent a communications banhammer.

mesh wifi? blimps? ad hoc 3g network? femtocells? type beam microwaves? airdrops of Pringles? angel investor for TamTam? Bonus points for ideas that are bespoke to Africa itself.

Re:contingency question

[ShanghaiBill]

I'm interested in any good ideas, countermeasures, rube goldberg devices that could be employed in or outside of a country like DRC that could restore, maintain, or circumvent a communications banhammer.

What do you hope to accomplish? Restored communications would empower the urban elite in Kinshasha, and further marginalize the rural people of the eastern Congo, who in some areas are already in open rebellion. The last thing the DRC needs is yet another full scale war.

For all his faults, Kabila has mostly avoided pandering to tribalism, unlike his "democratic" opponents. In the 1st World, we tend to view "Democracy" as an unqualified "Good Thing", but in tribal societies, it usually just leads to the dominant tribe getting even more power to crush the minorities.

Back to the good old BBS days!

[MavEtJu]

Time to dust of these Fidonet Technical Standards printouts!