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

Posted by EditorDavid on from the out-of-Africa dept.

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."

9 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Anonymous Coward Law by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A country that includes the words "Democratic Republic" in its name is neither democratic nor a republic.

  2. contingency question by beckett · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:contingency question by Iamthecheese · · Score: 2

      Wifi meshnet with clever routing is the obvious answer, but it should be implemented in a way that allows plausible deniability of ownership. Imagine a small, low power, low-observability, multiband pi that anyone can just plug in to an outlet and it starts functioning as a mesh net router offering free wifi for 50 meters in any direction. A dedicated repressive regime could track them down one at a time but it would be more trouble then it's worth, especially if people keep putting up new ones.

      --
      If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
    2. Re:contingency question by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Insightful

      https://slashdot.org/story/03/...

      And remember the rules of country names: If it contains "Democratic" then it isn't, and if it says "People's" there's an implied "A Few Dozen" before it.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:contingency question by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

    4. Re:contingency question by iktos · · Score: 2

      If the cell phone service as such isn't shut down a modem app would make uucp possible.

    5. Re:contingency question by Gryle · · Score: 5, Informative

      Unfortunately, the DRC has an electricity distribution issue. While the DRC has a lot of power-generating capability, civil infrastructure development is very lopsided and a lot of areas suffer rolling blackouts or brownouts. Also, never underestimate how far dictators will go to stay in power.

      --
      Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein
  3. Back to the good old BBS days! by MavEtJu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Time to dust of these Fidonet Technical Standards printouts!

    --
    bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
  4. Re:Get ready USAmericans.. by blindseer · · Score: 2

    Really? Afghanistan has kept modern armies from invading with little more than riflemen on the backs of camels.

    The United States got their freedom from a nation with the largest and most powerful military in the world at the time. They had farmers with turkey guns, on foot.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.