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Pakistan shuts down internet ahead of protests over ousting of prime minister

38 points by ddtaylor 4y ago

nickpeterson 4y ago
How does something like Starlink fair in these scenarios? How do governments turn off the internet when it comes from space?
- supertrope 4y ago
  Starlink operates in a bent pipe manner. Transmissions from user stations are relayed to a ground station in the region. Inter-satellite links have not been setup. Even services like Iridium that don't need any in country infrastructure have to comply with national laws. A government can block equipment at customs, criminalize use, and jam the frequencies.
- toast0 4y ago
  Starlink may be legally compelled to comply with a shutdown in the country. If they are compelled and they do comply, well game over. If they don't comply... Starlink currently sends user traffic through exactly one satellite, so that limits the distance between the user and the ground station it communicates with. Depending on the size of the country and where its population tends to be distributed, it may or may not be possible to communicate to a ground station outside the country. If you're stuck with in country ground stations, then there's a question of how they're connected with the global internet. Every country that does internet shutdowns seems to do it a little differently. Sometimes commercial providers aren't included in shutdowns. Some shutdowns are only for mobile carriers, sometimes only for prepaid customers. Sometimes shutdowns are for mobile carriers and residential fixed connections. Sometimes, all international connectivity runs through government control, and they shut down the whole thing. Often, international voice calling still works, and you can run a modem on that, but it's slow, often expensive, and obvious if anyone at the phone company cares to look and the government cares to punish circumvention.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- jmprspret 4y ago
  Well it comes down from space to a device that can receive the signal. Without that middle device there is no starlink - especially when it's proprietary. If it weren't proprietary, maybe people could DIY a receiver station thin.
user3939382 4y ago
If I was a betting man, I’d say the US is behind the curtain on this situation. The guy didn’t want to play ball on Ukraine, when asked he said “What are we, your slaves?” He resented the feeling that Pakistan has no sovereignty when the US wants something. The next week he was gone. Apparently yes there was some issues with his handling of the economy but I still think the timing is too much of a coincidence. Especially considering this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in...
- xbmcuser 4y ago
  The economy was doing fine 6% growth of GDP. He was a bit of an outsider so he was not acceptable to the power corridors be it the military, courts or politicians in Pakistan so they just needed little nudge from outside to topple his government. The previous election in 2018 was engineered as well once they realised that his party will get absolute majority so suddenly the election reporting system went down and his party seats stop increasing and he was hobbled with a simple majority government. The US keeps harping about democracy but if a democratic elected party wins that does not have US world view they try to do all they can to topple it.
2Gkashmiri 4y ago
yeah, it not just pakistan who is "bad", the day before yesterday, indian kangaroo courts put a man behind bars for life and in anticipation, indian authorities shut off mobile internet. https://kashmirlife.net/yasin-malik-sentenced-mobile-internet-off-in-kashmir-parts-293162/ https://kashmirlife.net/yasin-malik-sentenced-mobile-interne...
- bergenty 4y ago
  He was a violent separatist, it’s not totally undeserved.
  - 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
    "violent separatist?" wow. i will repeat his statement before the sentence was handed to him. "what evidence do you have on me that i have been engaged in these activities in the last 20 years? why did 2 prime ministers of india meet me during this time? why was i allowed to visit foreign countries on an indian passport till now? where were those charges then?" so according to you, "once a violent separatist is always a violent separatist" right? is it just me or has the average indian been brainwashed by the government to make "heroes" out of terrorists like mangal pandey or even baghat singh? those individuals were charged with same crimes yet you call them your heroes but our people are "violent separatists". right. fuck you
    - unmole 4y ago
      So, the JKLF hijacked a civilian aircraft, kidnapped the daughter of a Kashmiri minister and abducted and murdered a diplomat. Remind me, what did Bhagat Singh's HSRA do?
      - 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
        yeah, you are digging up something about a man which he "DID NOT DO" and want to punish 8 million people for speaking against the oppression. nice. ganga hijacking was done by hashim qureshi who is pro-india, ganga hijacking helped india liberate bangladesh because the air route was blocked or something. how is yasin malik involved in this?? classic strawman argument.
ryzvonusef 4y ago
A bit late to the news, protests already ended and net already re established ;p Also the net wasn't fully down, I'm in Islamabad (the site of the protests) and was tweeting and watching videos of the protests on my net throughout the "outage". to the point I was wondering if it wasn't a block and perhaps a more mundane technical issue? (I'm on PTCL, most issues I heard were of people on the Transworld backline) However Netblocks confirmed it was indeed an imposed outage for two hours. Not sure what it achieved ;p then again this is the country that blocked YouTube for six years, so yeah.... https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disrupted-in-pakistan-as-ousted-pms-mass-rally-takes-to-streets-xAGKoxAz https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disrupted-in-pakistan... https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1529449332142968837 https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1529449332142968837

38 points by ddtaylor 4y ago

How does something like Starlink fair in these scenarios? How do governments turn off the internet when it comes from space?

supertrope 4y ago
Starlink operates in a bent pipe manner. Transmissions from user stations are relayed to a ground station in the region. Inter-satellite links have not been setup. Even services like Iridium that don't need any in country infrastructure have to comply with national laws. A government can block equipment at customs, criminalize use, and jam the frequencies.
toast0 4y ago
Starlink may be legally compelled to comply with a shutdown in the country. If they are compelled and they do comply, well game over. If they don't comply... Starlink currently sends user traffic through exactly one satellite, so that limits the distance between the user and the ground station it communicates with. Depending on the size of the country and where its population tends to be distributed, it may or may not be possible to communicate to a ground station outside the country. If you're stuck with in country ground stations, then there's a question of how they're connected with the global internet. Every country that does internet shutdowns seems to do it a little differently. Sometimes commercial providers aren't included in shutdowns. Some shutdowns are only for mobile carriers, sometimes only for prepaid customers. Sometimes shutdowns are for mobile carriers and residential fixed connections. Sometimes, all international connectivity runs through government control, and they shut down the whole thing. Often, international voice calling still works, and you can run a modem on that, but it's slow, often expensive, and obvious if anyone at the phone company cares to look and the government cares to punish circumvention.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jmprspret 4y ago
Well it comes down from space to a device that can receive the signal. Without that middle device there is no starlink - especially when it's proprietary. If it weren't proprietary, maybe people could DIY a receiver station thin.

user3939382 4y ago

If I was a betting man, I’d say the US is behind the curtain on this situation. The guy didn’t want to play ball on Ukraine, when asked he said “What are we, your slaves?” He resented the feeling that Pakistan has no sovereignty when the US wants something. The next week he was gone. Apparently yes there was some issues with his handling of the economy but I still think the timing is too much of a coincidence. Especially considering this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in...

xbmcuser 4y ago
The economy was doing fine 6% growth of GDP. He was a bit of an outsider so he was not acceptable to the power corridors be it the military, courts or politicians in Pakistan so they just needed little nudge from outside to topple his government. The previous election in 2018 was engineered as well once they realised that his party will get absolute majority so suddenly the election reporting system went down and his party seats stop increasing and he was hobbled with a simple majority government. The US keeps harping about democracy but if a democratic elected party wins that does not have US world view they try to do all they can to topple it.

2Gkashmiri 4y ago

yeah, it not just pakistan who is "bad", the day before yesterday, indian kangaroo courts put a man behind bars for life and in anticipation, indian authorities shut off mobile internet. https://kashmirlife.net/yasin-malik-sentenced-mobile-internet-off-in-kashmir-parts-293162/ https://kashmirlife.net/yasin-malik-sentenced-mobile-interne...

bergenty 4y ago
He was a violent separatist, it’s not totally undeserved.
- 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
  "violent separatist?" wow. i will repeat his statement before the sentence was handed to him. "what evidence do you have on me that i have been engaged in these activities in the last 20 years? why did 2 prime ministers of india meet me during this time? why was i allowed to visit foreign countries on an indian passport till now? where were those charges then?" so according to you, "once a violent separatist is always a violent separatist" right? is it just me or has the average indian been brainwashed by the government to make "heroes" out of terrorists like mangal pandey or even baghat singh? those individuals were charged with same crimes yet you call them your heroes but our people are "violent separatists". right. fuck you
  - unmole 4y ago
    So, the JKLF hijacked a civilian aircraft, kidnapped the daughter of a Kashmiri minister and abducted and murdered a diplomat. Remind me, what did Bhagat Singh's HSRA do?
    - 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
      yeah, you are digging up something about a man which he "DID NOT DO" and want to punish 8 million people for speaking against the oppression. nice. ganga hijacking was done by hashim qureshi who is pro-india, ganga hijacking helped india liberate bangladesh because the air route was blocked or something. how is yasin malik involved in this?? classic strawman argument.

ryzvonusef 4y ago

A bit late to the news, protests already ended and net already re established ;p Also the net wasn't fully down, I'm in Islamabad (the site of the protests) and was tweeting and watching videos of the protests on my net throughout the "outage". to the point I was wondering if it wasn't a block and perhaps a more mundane technical issue? (I'm on PTCL, most issues I heard were of people on the Transworld backline) However Netblocks confirmed it was indeed an imposed outage for two hours. Not sure what it achieved ;p then again this is the country that blocked YouTube for six years, so yeah.... https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disrupted-in-pakistan-as-ousted-pms-mass-rally-takes-to-streets-xAGKoxAz https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disrupted-in-pakistan... https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1529449332142968837 https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1529449332142968837