
Ethiopia's Government Has Shut Down the Internet in a State of Emergency - tefo-mohapi
http://www.iafrikan.com/2016/10/17/following-a-series-of-violent-protests-ethiopias-government-has-shut-down-the-internet-in-a-state-of-emergency/
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jamesblonde
I have taken on 2 guys in Addis to work on our startup. They have barely been
online for 2 weeks and can't do their job. By the looks of things I might have
to let them go. Sad for them and the country.

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sekou
I understand that global internet connectivity usually occurs through a large
telecom in a lot of African countries and governments can shut down that
connection, but I wonder if a focus on creating decentralized networks can
help people continue to communicate directly with one another.

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bogomipz
How would this work on mobile though? 802.11 mesh networks with P2P mobile? At
some point you need to air interface on the tower to route anywhere beyond the
local LAN no? And unfortunately as you've said these are government entity.

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Overtonwindow
Does anyone think this could happen on a larger scale? With the
decentralization of DNS upon us, is it possible for a region to be cut off?

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MichaelBurge
It's not only possible, but easy isn't it? Couldn't they just cut the cables
leaving the country?

The article mentions they targeted primarily mobile communications. Well, a
quick Google search for a map shows only a couple dozen cell phone towers in
Ethiopia, so it's not hard to seize them all.

And China shows that it is perfectly capable of controlling internet access
for a billion people.

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M_Grey
What a shock that Calais is packed with, among other nationalities, Ethiopian
people. To be honest, it seems like internet cutoffs are the least of the bad
news coming out of that region on a daily basis.

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etqwzutewzu
They asked Trump who asked Bill Gates to "close up the internet".

