Rumeurs de la censure d'Internet en Algérie :

[Al-khiyal]

Algeria Internet not shut down, according to Renesys analysis

When the Egyptian government decided to flip the switch on its country's Internet on January 27, news of the unprecedented shut down spread rapidly. Rumors that the same thing has happened today in Algeria are unfounded, even though the country has been on the radar for a possible "domino effect" of events in Tunisia and Egypt. Internet intelligence authority Renesys, which confirmed the Egypt outage weeks ago, says in a new blog post that it has no evidence that Algeria's Internet has been shut down.

Renesys writes:

Algeria typically has about 135 routed network prefixes in the global routing table, and our data show that they are all still routed and relatively stable. Traceroutes inbound confirm that sites hosted in these prefixes are still alive, and spot checks of websites hosted in Algeria show that most are up and functioning normally.

It's possible, according to Renesys, that there are some Internet blocks not visible to outside the country, similar to Iranian-style throttling, but that can not be confirmed at this time. The Telegraph first reported that Algeria shut down the Internet and Facebook today in response to mounting protests. Social media website Mashable also picked up the report and led with it on its front page Saturday evening. The Telegraph article wrote, "Internet providers were shut down and Facebook accounts deleted across Algeria on Saturday as thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were arrested in violent street demonstrations."

[Al-khiyal]

Algeria remains online, say cyber activists and Internet engineering monitors

Sunday, February 13, 2011 -- Algeria remains online, contrary to inaccurate reporting first published in the UK's Daily Telegraph Saturday afternoon. StimulatingBroadband.com has confirmed, via direct communication with Andree Toonk of the Canada-based BGPMon global Internet monitoring service, the initial findings of monitoring firm Renesys stating the same pattern of facts. The Manchester, New Hampshire firm was first to report Saturday afternoon (EST) that Algerian Internet connections had not been disrupted. Toonk further told us he sees no disruption of specific sites, like Facebook, in the North African nation. This latter information from BGPMon is critical, as additional reports have suggested site specific disruptions or take downs. The central government of Algeria has thus not to date deployed a so-called Internet "kill switch" operation akin to that used by the former Mubarak regime in Egypt. While there have been some reports suggesting filtering or throttling of specific sites, verified technical remote inspection shows no social media sites or other online resources, previously allowed to operate in-country, have been blocked. The misnomer "kill switch" has become shorthand to refer to a national level series of operations which deny connectivity between and among in-county Internet service provides (ISPs) country and the global backbones that connect them to the world.

This is our best assessment of the situation early Sunday morning, February 13, following our direct communication with Mr. Toonk, and with pro-democracy activists that had a substantial role in supporting tech alternatives to the former Egyptian Internet blackout. For these activists and professional Internet engineering experts, Algeria is the telltale for potential Internet disruption in other nations across as pro-democracy activity shakes authoritarian regimes cross the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. The Telegraph's published report of early Saturday afternoon (EST) stated that Algerian Internet users were experiencing full loss of service, thought to be at a national level. The Telegraph report, written by freelancer Nabila Ramdani, was simply inaccurate, published before technical verification of scattered anecdotal statements were verified. The Telegraph's reporting appears based in interviews with Algerian Internet users and pro-democracy protesters on the ground. National-level denial of Internet services, via the disruption of either international or intra-national peering between and among ISPs and global transit providers, is technically monitored by the remote inspection of border gateway protocol (BGP) router connectivity. That technical means, in the hands of Internet engineering experts, is the accepted standard for determining large scale Internet disruption.

BGPMon agrees with Renesys, sees no DNS disruption

As we reported on February 2, 3 North American firms played the lead role in showing the world how and when Egyptian authorities deployed a so-called "kill switch" operation to cut off all Internet communication within Egypt, and between Egyptian users and the world. As of this posting, two of the three firms have reported seeing no Internet disruption in Algeria. StimulatingBroadband.com has confirmed with the principal of the Internet engineering and monitoring site BGPMon that firm concurs with an earlier published assessment of Renesys that Algeria remains online. Adree Toonk of BGPMon emailed this publication at 11:43 PM (EST) Saturday. Mr. Toonk stated, "I have not seen any signs of instability or other strange behavior in our BGP data for Algeria. I've done a bit more testing using DNS. Also there nothing strange as far as I can see. DNS requests for Facebook and Twitter are coming back with correct answer." Toonk, based in Vancouver, British Columbia continues to monitor both BGP and DNS data on Algerian routes and sites. James Cowie, co-founder and CTO of Manchester, NH based Renesys posted on the firm's blog at 5:10 PM (EST) Saturday that he and his colleagues "don't see confirming evidence for" reports of Algerian Internet disruption.

Telecomix sees no major disruption, prepares for new national "kill switches"

A consensus on active online message boards of the pro-democracy digital activist confederation called Telecomix throughout the latter part of Saturday and into Sunday held with the information reported by Renesys, and confirmed for this publication by BGPMon. Telecomix, with a majority of its members located in countries of the European Union, was the lead group which organized technical work-arounds to the total Internet blackout imposed on Egypt. The group found, recruited, and verified what became hundreds of working dial-up modem lines which Egyptians used to access the Internet via outbound calls. During Saturday, Telecomix members gathered information about the status of the Internet in multiple Arab countries and in Iran. They worked to validate new working modem numbers, in anticipation of the need to distribute the lists in any country that engaged in Internet disruption at the national level.

Telecomix distances itself from Anonymous

Telecomix and the hacktivist group Anonymous, share some points of similiar ideology, and some members. The two groups are however distinct - a distinction which grew during Saturday. One Telecomix supporter described to this publication several "overlaps" between the two decentralized networks, yet stressed the divergence of views and tactics. Anonymous famously claimed credit for disrupting online operations of American corporations that bowed to government pressure to deny WikiLeaks resources. The group now states it is engaged in leaking emails associated with firms alleged to have targeted WikiLeaks on behalf of the Bank of America. Strings of Telecomix messages streamed on its active message boards during Saturday stressed to readers that it saw the stated efforts of Anonymous to go after online sites of the Algerian government to be counter productive. In our view, Telecomix participants are engaged in relatively public efforts to help engineer work around strategies, and not in supporting denial of service or other similar efforts which result in the take downs of sites. Such activity is illegal under the laws of most nations, and the typical Telecomix member / activist appears to have no desire to engage in breaches of the law involving direct site take down activity.

[Al-khiyal]

Confusion autour de la censure d'Internet en Algérie

Lundi 14 Février 2011 -- L'Algérie a-t-elle censuré Internet le 12 février, jour du rassemblement organisé à l'initiative de la CNCD ? C'est ce qu'affirme le quotidien britannique The Telegraph dans son édition de ce lundi. Déjà début janvier, au moment des émeutes qui ont secoué le pays, l'accès à certains sites internet comme les réseaux sociaux Facebook et Twitter était impossible depuis l'Algérie. L'envoi et la réception de SMS via les téléphones mobiles également, au moins pendant plusieurs heures. Les internautes et les médias avaient alors dénoncé une censure. Sur la journée du 12 février en tout cas, il n'y a aucune preuve d'un blocage d'Internet, selon la société Renesys, spécialisée dans l'analyse du trafic internet. «L'Algérie utilise 135 allocations dans la table de routage globale et nos données montrent qu'elles ont toutes toujours été routées et relativement stables. Les sites hébergés avec ces allocations sont toujours actifs et des vérifications sur les sites hébergés en Algérie montrent que la plupart d'entre eux fonctionnent normalement», écrit Renesys. Cependant, elle affirme qu'«il est possible que des blocages d'Internet ont pu être mis en place et qu'ils ne soient pas visibles depuis l'étranger sur le modèle iranien ‘‘d'étranglement’’ ou encore par des coupures de connections domestiques». Ces rumeurs et questions sur le contrôle d'Internet montrent en tout cas l'enjeu que prend la toile dans les mouvements de contestation qui émergent dans plusieurs pays. Pour les régimes en place, Internet est devenu un véritable ennemi dans la lutte pour leur survie. Il est sans doute aujourd'hui l'un des meilleurs outils des protestataires. Dimanche, le Département d'Etat américain a rappelé, dans son message sur la situation en Algérie, le droit du peuple algérien à s'exprimer librement sur Internet. «Nous réaffirmons notre soutien aux droits universels du peuple algérien, y compris les droits de réunion et d'expression. Ces droits s'appliquent sur Internet» et «doivent être respectés».

[Al-khiyal]

À la veille de la marche du 19 février :
M’Hamed Dabouz, PDG d’Algérie Télécom, à TSA : ‘‘Nous ne bloquons pas Internet’’

Vendredi 18 Février 2011 -- À la veille de la marche de la CNCD à Alger, Algérie Télécom veut rassurer sur la disponibilité du réseau internet. Dans une déclaration à TSA, M’Hamed Dabouz est affirmatif : «il n’y a aucun blocage d’Internet ni saturation ». «Il n'y aura aucun problème de connexion. Tout ira bien sauf en cas de coupure du câble», a‑t‑il ajouté. Selon lui, si d’éventuels cas de saturation sont constatés, c’est à cause «des téléchargements sur Youtube et Facebook qui sont numéro 1 en Algérie». Même en cas de pic de trafic, «on n’atteint pas 80% de nos capacités. En temps normal, on utilise entre 60 et 65% de nos capacités», a‑t‑il ajouté. «Ce qui veut dire que nous ne bloquons pas Internet. Il y a assez de tuyaux qui peuvent supporter d’autres connexions», a‑t‑il précisé, ajoutant que «l'Algérie est l’un des pays où l'internet est le plus libre». Depuis quelques jours, des rumeurs et des informations non confirmées font état de blocages du réseau internet en Algérie pour empêcher la circulation de l’information dans un contexte de troubles politiques et sociaux. Lors des émeutes en Tunisie et en Égypte, les régimes de Ben Ali et de Moubarak avaient bloqué les réseaux sociaux comme Facebook et Twitter et restreint fortement l’accès à Internet