No. 262 VoIP Crackown: Implications for gov, telecom & civil society

1. Primary Contact Information

Mr. Keith McManamen

Organizational Affiliation: Psiphon Inc.

2. Secondary Contact Information

Mr. Amin Jobran

Organizational Affiliation: ASL19

3. Workshop Format. Please click here for a description of available Workshop Session Formats.

4. Panel format background paper

No background paper provided

5. Duration of proposed session

90 minutes

6. Title

VoIP Crackown: Implications for gov, telecom & civil society

7. Description of workshop

The past year has seen an explosion of VoIP software providers and users of their services. Telecommunications costs are prohibitive in many countries where inequality and poverty levels are high. Broadly speaking, any technology that facilitates inexpensive communication is crucial in these economies. VoIP services decrease the direct cost on the consumer, allowing for greater economic and social mobility. In many countries, business and politics are intertwined, for example government ownership of telecommunications providers, presenting conflicts of interest that stifle the emergence of innovative solutions and prioritize the interests of the corporation(s) at the expense of the people.

We advocate for this important session under this year's subtheme of 'policies enabling access and the digital economy. Psiphon and ASL19's analysis of numerous VoIP blocking cases this year reveals several key insights which form the impetus of this workshop: (1) on the basis they cannot monitor and surveil these communication tools, governments leverage national security laws to justify reactive censorship measures; (2) national level policy or legislation is often incommensurate with internationally-upheld principles of Internet freedom, such as Article 19; (3) there is great confusion over which companies can operate VoIP calling services and where, due to operating license requirements and interpretations of net neutrality; (4) users will undermine blocking, responding to large-scale censorship of VoIP services by turning to trusted circumvention tools to restore access; and (5) this grey area in Internet governance must be discussed and resolved in multistakeholder setting between government, telecom, civil society, and the technical community.

8. Tags

Tag1: Internet Economy

Tag2: Access

Tag3: Internet governance

9. Name, stakeholder group, and organizational affiliation of workshop proposal co-organizer(s)

Keith McManamen, Technical Community, Psiphon
Amin Jobran, Civil Society, ASL19

10. Has the proposer, or any of the co-organizers, organized an IGF workshop before?

yes

The link to the workshop report

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B02JlJQhOwnASUlBV0QyVjZyeVE/view?usp=sharing

11. Description of the plan to facilitate discussion amongst speakers, audience members and remote participants

The workshop begins with 'lightning' talks that allow all participants to begin the session at a common basis of understanding.

a. Wafa Ben Hassine - survey of the legislative environment that permits discretionary government censorship of popular services and platforms
b. Amin Jobran - case studies of outreach efforts during VoIP blocking incidents throughout the MENA region
c. Keith McManamen - data analysis from Psiphon's circumvention network on how censorship events influence online behaviour, and how this undermined government blocking in different geographies.
d. VoIP provider(s) (*provisional) - representatives from Facebook, WhatsApp, and Skype have been invited to share private sector perspectives on these challenges

Then I will pose questions to the expert panelists to help their perspectives take shape before the audience. Attendees as well as online viewers will be encouraged to participate with questions as well.

After hearing the legal, technical, private sector, and civil society positions explained, I will form diverse groups and present the challenge: how can internet governance address this challenge in a fair and equitable way? In the context that many Internet users can barely afford telecom in their country, and their lack of access can stifle economic growth. Lower telecom profits provides less state revenue, which can impact social programs and other public services. Easily accessible technology renders blocking and filtering easier to bypass, and the brunt of censorship policies is disproportionately endured by lower and middle class people. The advocacy role of civil society groups and activists is now crucial to mobilize and organize citizens rights.

Questions/discussion as time permits.

12. Proposed Speakers

Jobran, Amin
Belkassem, Houda
Ben Hassine, Wafa
McManamen, Keith
Chennoufi, Al Walid

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Belkassem, Houda
Ben Hassine, Wafa
Chennoufi, Al Walid
Jobran, Amin
McManamen, Keith

13. Reasons for Speakers and/or description of how stakeholder views will be represented

Keith McManamen is a strategic analyst at Psiphon, and will provide a rarely-seen network-side view using circumvention data surrounding blocking events to evaluate how these incidents impact people's online behaviour in different countries. The technical community plays a key role in the life and death of internet freedom in different countries, and large numbers of people depend on technological solutions as a regular part of going online.

Amin Jobran is the outreach manager at ASL19, a group that provides tools for circumvention and digital security to internet users in Iran and the MENA region. He provides technical support and advice on best practices during blocking events and other incidents, and has intervened actively in cases of VoIP blocking in several MENA countries.

Wafa Ben Hassine is a legal analyst and an international human rights lawyer specialized in counter-terrorism and cybercrime law, and how this is leveraged by governments to suppress dissent, and unfairly target activists and dissidents. She has studied the use of these legislative mechanisms to justify censorship and surveillance in cases of Tunisia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

Al Walid Chennoufi is President and Digital Security Coordinator for Access Now based in Tunisia. As a digital rights and internet freedom advocate, he is well aware of digital security software and practices and how governments are threatened by technology such as encryption, and actively seek to thwart civil society's access to these tools. He is also an active supporter of multistakeholder internet governance initiatives, and seeks to make these fora more equitable and productive.

Houda Belkassem is an IT engineer and professor based in Morocco, who has actively studied the VoIP issue in the context of her home country and others. She is a member of the IGMENA project as a policy analyst and has a thorough understanding of the governance topology underlying these issues.

*(provisional speakers)
Representative from WhatsApp - will discuss challenges relating to recent blocking events in UAE and Brazil; what restrictive policies mean in general from the perspective of the private sector in terms of the business environment and effective service provision

Representative from Facebook - will discuss challenges relating to the recent blocking of Messenger in Saudi Arabia; what restrictive policies mean in general from the perspective of the private sector in terms of the business environment and effective service provision

14. Name of in-person Moderator(s)

Keith McManamen

15. Name of Remote Moderator(s)

Keith McManamen

16. Name of Rapporteur(s)

Keith McManamen

17. Description of the proposer's plans for remote participation

We have designed a VoIP-related internet governance survey aimed at the average internet user that will be distributed via multiple channels (including the Psiphon network) over the course of the next several months. This information allows netizens worldwide to contribute their feedback in an (aggregated) active way that is incorporated directly into the session. The perspectives of 'civil society' may come to surprise some of the experts claiming to represent this cohort. This is part of the design of the session, such that regular people have their voices heard as an extra 'panelist', and these opinions dynamically shape the outcome of the workshop.

Online viewers will have their questions taken in the due course of moderation, as noted above. They will also be privy to the session report provided to the IGF subsequently.

18. Based on which Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

No information provided

19. Background paper

No additional background paper provided

20. Agenda

The session will begin with brief 'lightning' talks given by our expert panelists which outline the context to the issue, to identify the different stakeholder groups and their perspectives:

a. Wafa Ben Hassine - survey of the legislative environment that permits discretionary government censorship of popular services and platforms
b. Amin Jobran - case studies of outreach efforts during VoIP blocking incidents throughout the MENA region, and how users responded
c. Keith McManamen - data analysis from Psiphon's circumvention network on how censorship events influence online behaviour, and how this undermined government blocking in different geographies.
d. VoIP representative(s)* [provisional]: some large VoIP companies that faced censorship in the past year have been invited to share private sector perspectives on how they were affected by these challenges

Next, the moderator will direct questions to our expert panelists to shape their perspectives and highlight where these different stakeholder groups intersect on issues. Attendees as well as online viewers will be encouraged to participate in submitting questions or comments.

Once we feel the different viewpoints have been explained and clarified, we will form diverse groups of members of the audience and begin breakout group discussions to determine ways of approaching this internet governance issue given its multistakeholder dimensions and the opposing interests of the different parties concerned. As a group, we hope to map out the issue from the different stakeholder perspectives and brainstorm possible strategies or solutions.

We will leave time for open discussion or conversations on the topic.