Mugabe objects to US control of the internet
November 16th, 2005
The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), Tunis hosted by the Government of Tunisia, begins today. The location has already prompted Ethan Zuckerman to express reservations about the summit:
I’m attending despite deep misgivings over the usefulness of the gathering, the absurd cost of the meeting, and the fact that it’s being held within a deeply repressive country with a history of detaining people who use the Internet to exercise their right to free speech
Brian at Black Star Journal titles one of his posts ‘What’s next? A world summit on good governance held in Harare?’ and links to a statement issued yesterday by Reporters Without Borders:
“This new act of intimidation proves that a campaign is being deliberately organised against the foreign media and Tunisian human rights activists on the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis,†the press freedom organisation said. “Once again the Tunisian authorities have not hesitated to use violence against journalists.â€
Robert Mugabe has attended, undoubtedly feeling quite relieved that it’s being held in a deeply repressive country (he’ll feel at home), and that he doesn’t have to worry about travel sanctions because it’s a UN event.
Andy Carvin is blogging his notes from the meeting, and this is some of what he wrote down during Mugabe’s turn to talk:
Zimbabwe is concerned that the Internet is being used to undermine a country’s values, including child pornography, cyber crime and cyber terrorism.
“Undermine a country’s values”…? “Cyber-terrorism”…? Mugabe was a bit more specific about his concerns when he spoke at the same conference in 2003 :
These last two years have shown us how information and ICTs are often deployed as preludes and accompaniments to aggressing the sovereignties of poor and small nations. I say this because my country Zimbabwe continues to be a victim of such aggression, with both the United Kingdom and United States using their ICT superiority to challenge our sovereignty through hostile and malicious broadcasts calculated to foment instability and destroy the state through divisions.
Our voice has been strangled and our quest to redeem a just and natural right has, been criminalized. Today we are now very clear. Beneath the rhetoric of free press and transparency is the iniquity of hegemony. The quest for an information society should not be at the expense of our efforts towards building sovereign national societies. Our national society does not exist to serve ICTs or information. Both must be instruments that serve our society as it seeks fullness through balanced development and self-determination. Both must express themselves within the parameters of our inviolate sovereignty represented by our democratic national will which expresses itself through our national laws, our national policies and our national institutions. On this we are firm and unbending.
Instead, we should seek to use ICTs as tools that can be adopted and adapted to the construction of sovereign national societies, with clear national identities, themselves real and only durable building blocs to vibrant, diverse, just and sustainable global information society.
“‘Our voice has been strangled’..?!” the indignant pro-democracy blogger exclaimed before signing off anonymously. It really needs no further explanation, does it?
The Guardian discusses one of the central issues at the WSIS meeting; namely, the control that America has over the internet through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) (also read this). You can understand, especially after reading the 2003 extract above, why this issue would bother mugabe enormously. His reaction to that is predictable:
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe offered a more ominous warning. The US and allies such as the UK unreasonably “insist on being world policemen on the management of the Internet”, and that must change, Mugabe said.
More from Andy Carvin’s notes on mugabe’s speech:
We must allow for a more transparent and multilateral approach to Internet governance. Why should our diverse world be beholden to an American company? And without clear financing mechanisms to bridge the digital divide, all of this work may be doomed… The west’s resistance to the solidary fund may spell doom for all things developed in this process. Suppose they are being rejected because they are not being managed by the Breton Woods institutions on the strenghs of the west’s industrial designs?
The final outcome, reported here by Reuters, is that the US will retain control of domain names.
November 16th, 2005 23:50
WE created it, WE own it, they have access to it, and can use routers and firewalls to block anything they want to block, what is the big deal?
The only thing handing control of the internet over to the UN will accomplish will be massive leaps backwards in capabilities due to their views on “freedom”.
November 17th, 2005 03:28
If Mugabe objects, it’s good by me.
November 17th, 2005 21:56
Papa Robert Mugabe’s points were well defined.
He spoke his mind. He spoke for most of us on our fears about the US Control of the Internet.
November 18th, 2005 09:48
I like Mugabe because he never feels intimidated to speak his mind. To a certain extent he is right.
November 18th, 2005 19:48
“He spoke for most of us on our fears about the US Control of the Internet.”
What exactly is so darn scary about the US controlling what we created? It’s an open, world wide accessible resource and there are no plans to change that. Giving the UN control is scary.
November 6th, 2006 12:17
Great post, I see racial self-segregation all the time, and I want to investigate the issue more thoroughly.
I always find something new and interesting every time I come around here – thanks.
March 21st, 2007 14:39
Mugabe is a monster, that must be stopped.
Anyone who thinks or believes he is correct in the actions he takes or his moral way of thinking is just as evil as he is.
How can the world sit back and watch this shameless coward and bringer of pain, death and destruction carry on as if it is all ok.
He must be brought to justice.
May 27th, 2007 18:57
I am a Zimbabwean man born in a British Sponsored Apartheid called Rhodesia. A place where I had no rights. A place where I was abused 24-7. A place where my father was called BOY & I PIKININI a place where I lived tin match box structure because of the COLOUR OF MY SKIN.
SLAVERY
POLICE BRUTALITY
DETENTION
BEATINGS
KAFFIRS
LAND APPORTIONMENT ACT
There was UN sanctions on Rhodesia suppossedly. Respective British administrations sustained and sponsored Salisbury.
POLICE BRUTALITY
DETENTION
BEATINGS
KAFFIRS
President Mugabe restored my dignity. Liberator, Educator the author of the policy of Reconciliation which prevented retribution against the Racist Rhodesians.
President Robert Mugabe only took back our land from those who STOLE it.
To Britain, America & Australia those who have stolen land from its indegenous peoples Mugabe must be stopped. Where today are the indegeneous peoples of America & Australia?
I say Bayete, Long Live President Mugabe. A True statesman who can not be bought. The only African leader over the past 400 years who has stood up against British Sponsored oppression of African people.
You need to take heed of the fact that economically weak Zimbabwe is supported by African countries despite numerous threats of AID withdrawal by EU & US NGOs
July 25th, 2007 06:37
{{{You need to take heed of the fact that economically weak Zimbabwe is supported by African countries despite numerous threats of AID withdrawal by EU & US NGOs}}}
80% unemployment, and 9000% percent inflation.
Your country is now a BIG JOKE.
Literally.-i.e. Somalia has NO government. But still manages to have a better economy than Zimbabwe’s.
Amazing.
By all means, support the great Mugabe. Until you go back home (for I HIGHLY doubt you are writing from Zim), and get to experience a little of your peoples poverty, then your opinions are as worthless as Mugabe’s speeches.
This man has managed to fly in the face of every single sane economic theory that has ever existed. Its like he’s trying to manage a capitalist market through socialist tools.
Amazing.
Well what does it matter right? To the rest of the world it’s just more Africans killing each other.
In Sudan, they employ militias. In America they use gangs. In Zimbabwe, they use the economy.
Amazing.
Long gone are the gold days of the African continent. Long gone are the days when the trade routes met in the Sahel, and deposited ungodly amounts of gold up on it. Long gone are the days when African cities were the centers of learning.
Now it is all about who wield the most control of their brothers and sisters.
Amazing….and so damn sad.
November 22nd, 2005 19:00
[...] Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe took center stage a couple of times at WSIS in Tunis last week. First up was Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president calling for an end to the use of the internet against the freedom of lesser developed countries by developed nations. “These last two years have shown us how information and ICTs are often deployed as preludes and accompaniments to aggressing the sovereignties of poor and small nations. I say this because my country Zimbabwe continues to be a victim of such aggression, with both the United Kingdom and United States using their ICT superiority to challenge our sovereignty through hostile and malicious broadcasts calculated to foment instability and destroy the state through divisions.” Mugabe is accused of single-handedly curbing many freedoms in Zimbabwe, including that of expression. Hope at This is Zimbabwe wonders, ‘“Undermine a country’s valuesâ€â€¦? “Cyber-terrorismâ€â€¦?’ [...]