What is the ISPs role in national security ?

BrainPower

Senior Member
May 19, 2009
146
1
I remember it as if it was Yesterday.

It was mid april, well past midnight i was paged simultaneously from some of the Isp's home.

Then called.

-BrainPower, We have intelligence officers and an individual from the national regulator.
-Yes.. Im listening...
-They require us to block access to a website that is not adhering to the maadili of Tanzania
-Ohh okey..mmhhh
(now i had already pre-empted this. There are two moves i could make )
Either:-

a) Simply comply with them. Log into the core routers. Block the routes to the website and go back to sleep.

b) Refuse to block the website. Tell them that there is now law in Tanzania that binds me to block any website.
Then make lots of noise. Take this fight to the local + national media , blogs , forums, etc In the name of freedom of speech.

-Well i thought it was unfair to make this decision until i typed in the website url in my browser and saw what was in store. Bloody Hell !
No one in their right mind was going to back me up if i took option 'B'

The conversation ended.........
-Mhh... Well take their ID, names, contact and official letter and i will get right into it.

-Now, wanajamii wenzangu. It is true that there is freedom of speech, but this guy (whoever paid for the controversial site) had crossed the line.
There is also privacy jamanii. Freedom is not Anarchy

Having said that, I have realized now that ISPs play a major role in National Security.

I would like to know people's views on this

a) When is it right for the authorities to ask ISPs to block certain websites ? What if they are legit like the media sites / forum ? Should they go ahead ? What is the criteria ?

b) Is there a need to establish a Tanzania internet filter (which all isps should block routes that are listed in filter 'black book')

I really think it is important to answer these questions right now as we are preparing for the General election (with the concurrent arrival of the fibre optic cable).

A beehive of blogs / sites are going to be opened. A lot of information (true/false) is going to be posted on the net, and a lot of toes will be stepped upon.

I open the debate
 
If it was my idea, i would say
***instead of blocking the sites, why not dealing with it like shutting it down? ***

Blocking works on some few distances but there ar tools that let us bypass that...
If the government is serious about the site or security, what is stopping you from shutting the site down???

Unless the site is being hosted by some guys who knows no government :)

But still if its just a single person thats ok (he/she can just ignore it), but if its the government concern then thats much easier...

***its like you have the licence to kill ***
:D
 
Kama hakuna law guiding for filtering..it could be a mess.....there must be law governing all isp on filtering of websites and access etc.....the issue now will lead to many of local trying not to host to our local isp....
 
***instead of blocking the sites, why not dealing with it like shutting it down? ***
i never thought if it from that point of view. Try shutting down the site. Good

But it requires a lot of effort , intervention and could be a headache if its hosted under doddgy servers abroad that think they are out of bounds from any regulatory authority
 
I dont think having filters will discourage people from hosting the website in local severs . But i think people will be afraid cause they know their local sites coud easily be shut down.
 
Ofcourse it could be a headache but no one ever said its impossible and if you doit on ur own ***chuki binafsi*** its a crime but just imagine a government asks you to doit?

*** A licence to kill :D ***

And shutting down the site its much easier if its hosted on our ISP's thats why only 2% of tzs ar hosting here and if only they could pay online i don't think they would host here..

good example is that you get a same call as u did but this time the guy on a cell complains that one of the sites you ar hosting its *** kiukaring maadili *** then what?

*** yes you'll probably call the owner or just suspend his account ***

Thats why its much safer to host outside tz, and i did not say it would be impossible to shutdown the site being hosted outside tz, 2 years ago we shutdown 2 foregn websiites by simply calling the admins...

*** which was kinda cool because it took only 2 days of work ***

***********************
Now about maadili.
In online world we don't have maadili, we have our own maadili, our own governments our own freedoms, it would be nounce to start bitching arround *** hii site inakiuka maadili ya tz ***

What are those maadili? are we also going to be like our late father who said its better for all of us to be poor than some of us to be rich?

If its really maadili gov is interested to keep then i would dare them to close,
*** filter *** all porno websites, all scientifical websites and many more websites that goes against our maadili...

*** lets try to be like ant-viruses, lets develop according to our current time/world, lets not remain in a past ***


***ok if i say somethin out of line my apologies... :)***
cheers
 
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