ASNs decimation in ZW this morning

Wed Jan 16 17:49:23 UTC 2019

Im confused as to what exactly happened and how it was implemented. I 
assume the government wanted to restrict access to sites like whatsapp, 
facebook, twitter, etc.,. So did they tell national ISPs/Mobile 
(strong-arm) to simply block access to those sites, or they did they 
tell them to completely shutdown and go dark until the protests were 
over. Im just curious as to how an ISP/Mobile would selectively block 
access under government influence, reason being... understanding how can 
help us think of ways to get around it.

For example, lets say the mobile networks null routed all traffic 
destined to twitter and facebook networks... not a complete IP shutdown. 
So a local citizen is using email from a local provider (non-gmail, 
etc.,.) and still has access to email, Twitter knows they are blocked in 
ZW, but they still try to email updates to this example citizen. If 
their networks are being null routed, they can simply deliver the email 
via an alternate network/platform.

The whole thing is very disturbing, I mean this is 2019 right? Not 1984...

-John

On 1/16/19 9:06 AM, Mark Tinka wrote:

>
> On 16/Jan/19 15:54, Colin Johnston wrote:
>
>>
>> I wonder how they block social media sites/whats up, is it null
>> routing on peering cores or filtering since did not see filtering in
>> place from ZIM<>UK last month...
> In Africa, the majority of connectivity happens over mobile networks. So
> it's easy to "fix" it, since mobile networks have some of the most
> advanced DPI's in any network.
>
> For those not aware, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Zimbabwean president,
> increased fuel prices from US$1.24/litre to US$3.11/litre for diesel,
> and US$1.31/litre to US$3.31/litre for petrol. This is what led to
> (violent) protests, and as such, networks being asked to shutdown services.
>
> Mark.
>
>
>
>