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Date: 2025-01-15 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00003035

Country ... Syria
Communications infrastructure

MTN alleged to be closing off communications ... The internet goes dark, then the tanks roll in

COMMENTARY

I would like MTN to be on the right side of history. Internet and mobile service is a vital service in times of trouble and should not be highjacked by repressive regimes at their will.

Peter Burgess

Peter Burgess The internet goes dark, then the tanks roll in Access Now Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 8:09 AM To: Peter Burgess

Join us in calling on international telco MTN to stop enabling dictators to commit human rights abuses.

Peter,

Recent reports from our contacts on the ground in Syria have told us that phone and internet service is constantly being throttled, and sometimes it's completely cut off -- just as military tanks roll into a neighborhood.

While the Syrian government has their hand on the switch, a major telecommunications operator there, MTN, has not stood up for the people they serve.

We need them immediately to push back against Assad and his thugs in order to protect Syrians in the middle of a war zone. Click the link below to sign the urgent petition calling on MTN to stop enabling dictators to violate the rights of their citizens:

https://www.accessnow.org/mtn

MTN, with 175 million subscribers worldwide, is feeling the pressure from the international community for their complicity in human rights abusing countries like Iran and Zimbabwe.

How do we know? Because MTN has audaciously sent its PR team to ask us how to improve its public image. We told them their problem is not how MTN is perceived, but what it does.

They said our conversation was confidential, but we told them it was public and that we'd be consulting our members before getting back to them. That's why we need you now.

We've got MTN's ear, so we need to act fast to bring about change on the ground in Syria. Click the link below to sign the petition, and tell MTN to put an end to governments pushing telcos around to commit human rights abuses:

https://www.accessnow.org/mtn

With your support, The Access Team

PS: One by one, we are challenging telcos on their human rights policies. Just last month, we asked Vodafone at its annual shareholder meeting to come clean on government requests for user data, especially in known rights-abusing states. And now, thanks to over 10,000 of you who endorsed our question, they have invited us to engage in a direct dialogue with them to establish new practices founded on respect for human rights. Go here to read more.

FURTHER READING:

  • Mobiles, Internet cut in Syria's Aleppo: activists
  • AdaptiveMobile Drops Iran Contracts On Gear For Text Monitoring
  • Vodafone Chairman Ignores Human Rights Duties
  • Iranian Police Seizing Dissidents Get Aid Of Western Companies
  • Human Rights Commission asked to investigate MTN

Access is an international NGO that promotes open access to the internet as a means to free, full and safe participation in society and the realization of human rights. To help protect the internet around the world, you can donate to Access. To reply, please email info@accessnow.org. To unsubscribe, go to: http://www.accessnow.org/unsubscribe

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