Hello friends
I trust you are well.
Mauritius has released plans to deal with harmful content on social media.
This is very dangerous territory.
My feeling is that social media is an output to what is going on in the country. The government has not cited any examples directly related to Mauritius for context which is dangerous.
I talk about using a gold plated shotgun to taken down a swarm of wasps. The solution is overkill, dangerously powerful and will cause collateral damage and won’t stop a swarm. This analogy refers to this scenario only.
Anyway today’s song
Michael Kiwanuka is seriously talented.
I have a favour please share with Mauritian friends and feel free to feedback to me on nishaan32@hotmail.com
Take care guys
Nish
Welcome to the internet my friends
Below is the letter I am sending to the ICTA. The ICTA (Information and Communication Technologies Authority of Mauritius) is exploring the idea of proxying social media traffic with the aim of archiving, blocking and removing harmful content. Mauritius is pursuing a cyber sovereignty movement, pushing for more controls in their borders. The internet is a global platform, internet freedom is about human rights.
There is a petition circulating which if signed can show tangible distrust
I also invite you to write to the ICTA, comment here or comment on facebook or even email me.
Dear ICTA
The proposals to combat unacceptable abuse in creole, trouble me. Below are some things to consider, which are reasons why the ICTA should not go ahead. Firstly there is no author to the document who can discuss in a reasonable forum with experts. Secondly Ish Sookun raises the question of a lack of clarity of what problems are going to solved here. I have worked in the technology industry for close to 20 years specialising in security. We have seen numerous breaches and ways to bypass logical systems, it is one of the reasons security is one of the fastest growing sectors in the tech industry.
The document pulls together random legislation without connection.
Impartiality
A while back I did an exercise to look at impartiality in the public media service, MBC, which I pay for through my electricity bill. I asked the question
“How do you ensure impartiality in news coverage both online and in broadcast news?
Thanks”
The answer was from Mr Ashok Beeharry
“Dear Saccaram
Thank you for your mail.
We have taken note of your concern and opinion.
Regards
News Department”
As a result I do not have trust that there are adequate processes in place to provide a news service which Mauritius deserves. I do not have trust in the Mauritian Broadcasting Corporation which I pay for. Although not under the ICTA, MBC is another state body which is meant to operate impartially.
Competence
EDB portal
A while back I reported an issue over SSL certificates on the EDB portal, as the admin had failed to enable SSL forwarding on the page, so it remained on HTTP and not HTTPS where personal and password details were being taken. This was reported to CERT and nothing was done. I had to go into the office and raise this out my own valuable billable time.
Arrest for satire
There was an arrest of an internet activist for simply sharing an image which was not created by her, and which was clearly satire. This appeared to be an arrest which had other motivations.
Smart City
There is a system of CCTV cameras on the island, which when needed, but during a suspect death, the system is ineffective.
Cambridge Analytica/1984
You mention Cambridge Analytica and a data leak, but there is no mention of how they operated here, and how the proposed solution mitigates that risk. With another body in charge of controlling/monitoring the narrative of everyday Mauritians, there is a real chance of manipulating the stories of every day Mauritians, silencing some and allowing others to be heard.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who will guard the guards themselves? Again I refer you to the arrest mentioned above. The problem with any system is humans. Within any population or group dynamics there will be inherent biases. How will Atheists be treated in a society which does not protect them?
Tourism and Business
A major crown jewel is that Afrinic are based here, would they still be here if the new proposals come into play? The sanctity of SSL is at stake here.
Would tourists be happy with a nation state government storing their credentials when accessing social media? I would not go to the country given the choice. The countries which curtail .
Freedom of information
There is no freedom of information act to provide details on how this came about, the rules in place. You are expecting us to give you more of our data and you cannot provide more of your own. This is transparency on how your algorithms work. There is no author on this document.
OCR vs Text
Your system can read text but can it read images? What is the false positive rate? How much noise will it create? This will look to be very time consuming.
Questions:
How much is this going to cost?
What protections are going into place?
How is the data being stored and backed up?
How is access being audited?
Which international recognised standards are being used to safeguard and operate?
What interaction has happened with the social media companies to achieve an agreed solution?
Answers to the questions posed
What are your views on the present approach of self-regulation of social networks by social media administrators themselves where they decide to remove an online content or not based on their own usage policy and irrespective of your domestic law?
This is a very guided question. Social media companies also regulate to a certain extent, taking down material which is offensive, illegal and according to a certain set of guidelines. Like any other medium there will always be outliers where things fall through the cracks. The vast majority of posts are valid. Please can you post your research on the scale of the problem.
An interesting figure is how many posts are made each year and how many are offensive and how many were handled by and an admin and the social media companies and how many were not. Your data set would be needed to confirm.
Do you think that the damage caused by the excesses and abuses of social networks to social cohesion warrants a different approach from the self-regulatory regime presently being enforced by social media administrators themselves?
No everyone is a grown up and responsible for their content, we have defamation laws to handle this. The ICTA should have no involvement. Let’s have a look in this context, Wakashio over social media helped unite the country.
There is a lot of push against social media administrators. An interesting and targeted trend.
What are your views on the overall proposed operational framework in terms of the • National Digital Ethics Committee (NDEC) • Enforcement Division which is intended to bring more clarity to section 18 (m) of the ICT Act, where the ICTA is mandated to take steps to regulate or curtail the harmful and illegal content on the Internet and other information and communication services.
There is no expertise in the country at the moment to handle this. Please see the above comments on competence. Defamation legislation is where this should come in. Let’s discuss inherent bias, in a country where religion is a key part of society, truth maybe ignored to avoid problems. As an atheist even a quote by an eminent scientist can cause annoyance.
You need to demonstrate a workflow and show examples of how and where this would work.
18m mentions harmful - define fully what harmful means and why your version of harmful is more accurate than mine?
What happens if harmful interferes with free speech. A definition of harmful requires a larger debate which requires a lot more time.
4.7 What are your views on the use of the technical toolset, especially with respect to its privacy and confidentiality implications when enforcing the mandatory need to decrypt social media traffic?
The toolset can and will be bypassed. You have not provided a full tech spec of the architecture.
See my questions.
The easiest way to summise this is that you are taking a very expensive shotgun to take a down a swarm of wasps.
8 Can you propose an alternative technical toolset of a less intrusive nature which will enable the proposed operational framework to operate in an expeditious, autonomous and independent manner from the need to request technical data from social media administrators?
This is written as there is no other choice.
We need to go back to first principles and understand how we got here. Social media is an output and a feedback mechanism.
This is not a technical problem but something more around a philosophical debate and a question of society.
Work with social media with identifying harmful content and develop and strengthen processes. That is the best solution.
Final thought
We have to ask what we want our country to be? A place for free speech and debate? Maybe we should look at how we converse as a society and within politics as whole. The government does not have my confidence to deliver this and the damage to our reputation. This is a waste of money for a system which will easily be bypassed.
For whatever the problem is open the dialogue with the experts, including me. You are creating a huge box and to quote Michael Hayden, former NSA director
“Give me the box you will allow me to operate in. I am going to play to the very edges of the box…. You the American people through your elected representatives, give me the field of play and I will play very aggressively in it.”
Social media is a feedback loop on how well you as a government are doing. If you fear fake news maybe strengthen MBC as an institution with separation from the management of the Prime Minister and with a board of trustees to manage impartiality. The sheer amount of data will enable you to do so much more.
I will fight the proposal in its current form, even if you get your house in order. Full disclosure I will be publishing this.
Building the conversation.
I write these, as an intellectual exercise, trying to understand the world, and it’s need to change. Adrock said once “I’d rather be a hypocrite than the same person forever.”
There is a need to change and a need to practice that change.
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About me
This is where I put annoying descriptors, but simply I like looking at problems, fixing them, and asking questions. Outside of this I love film, music and books. I can be found on twitter and instagram.