Network news

Trafigura, a London-based oil trader connected with dumping toxic waste in Ivory Coast in 2006, was the most used word on micro-blogging site Twitter this morning. After the Guardian was banned from reporting the contents of a parliamentary question relating to the toxic dumping scandal yesterday evening, the topic was widely picked up and aired on Twitter. As the statistical page CrowdEye shows, tweeting increased slightly yesterday evening, and a steep rise of more than 5,500 tweets including the word “Trafigura” followed this morning.

While the Guardian was prevented from reporting the question – from MP Paul Farrelly to a minister – until law firm Carter-Ruck withdrew its opposition at lunchtime today, Twitter wasn’t: instead of suppressing the story the attempt backfired. Factor in the Streisand effect, and starting here the topic spread across the internet and became the top trending topic on Twitter. The Guardian editor-in-chief, Alan Rusbridger, tweeted the gagging order with the question “Did John Wilkes live in vain?”. The gagging order was lifted after Carter-Ruck dropped its claim.

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Mandelson’s law would mean that the government could disconnect anyone they suspect of downloading anything copyrighted. Only in June this year the government had ruled out draconian measures like this but now it appears Mandelson has caved in to the wishes of the music and film industry. His change of heart comes just days after a dinner with an industry lobbyist in Corfu. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the companies like Virgin Media and Talk Talk that provide our internet connections, have warned that these laws would “breach fundamental human rights” . Digital Rights campaigners have warned that the new measures would be a “curtailment of people’s freedom of expression.” The government plans to force through these measures even though a similar law was ruled to be unconstitutional by France’s highest court and may be illegal in the UK . If Mandelson’s proposals become law ISPs warn that thousands could be cut off because someone had hacked
into their home network.

The launch of the government-backed East African Marine System (Teams) comes as providers face a backlash over slow connection speeds and high prices.
Internet providers have increased speeds and lowered costs since the Seacom cable went live in August.
But users say services still remain too expensive for most ordinary Kenyans.

Senior government official Bitange Ndemo said there was evidence that some internet service providers (ISPs) were “fleecing the public”.

Almost two months after the first high-speed cable made landfall, the highest residential internet speed offered by Kenya’s largest ISP remains capped at one megabit per second (Mbps).

That speed is available only at night and at weekends, for an annual cost of $1,440 (£860). The average Kenyan annual wage is about $800, the UN estimates.

Campaigners sat in kayaks outside government offices in London to protest at “false solutions” to climate change. Twenty activists wearing flippers and goggles demonstrated at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to mark the end of the Climate Camp.

Thousands of people have begun leaving the camp, a week after it was set up in Blackheath, south-east London.

Police said its “low-key” approach was a “success” and showed it heeded the recommendations after the G20 protests.

‘Failed systems’

Green activists wore arm bands, goggles and flippers and sat in kayaks during the demonstration in Whitehall Place.

Jane Roberts, a protester, said: “We thought that DECC’s staff and Ed Miliband might appreciate some goggles and floats because if they continue with their destructive policies they will need them.

“Rather than getting serious about tackling climate change, DECC is simply seeking to preserve these failed systems with false solutions, such as carbon trading.”

continued… click on the link below.

It looks as if all the recent efforts by the police to put their best caring-sharing face forward have fallen a little flat. After last years violence by police just around the corner from GreenNet's office, watch this video letter response to the Met.

After the chaos we saw and unrestrained police violence against peaceful protesters just around the corner from GreenNet offices on Bishopsgate a few months ago, it is not surprise the police are expected to take a lesser role this time round. Support the Camp for Climate Action by visiting their website and attending any local events, or check the Guardian's dedicate Climate Camp page by following the link below.

by ding donging your bell on 9th September. Ding Day is a day for London cyclists to ring their bells with impunity, to say hello to other cyclists and be happy that they’re not stuck in a stuffy bus, tube or car.

Greenpeace has attacked HP for using toxic chemicals in the production of PCs. In California, US, staff at HP’s global headquarters were greeted with the message “HP = Hazardous Products” painted on the roof in large yellow letters and automated phone calls from actor William Shatner, calling upon the company to phase-out the toxic chemicals.

This protest follows similar demonstrations against HP at its offices in China and Holland highlighting the continued presence of toxic chemicals in HP products, Greenpeace said.

According to Greenpeace, earlier this year HP postponed its 2007 commitment to phase-out dangerous substances such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic(2) from its computer products (excluding server and printer lines) from 2009 to 2011.

The first of four undersea cables bringing high-speed internet to eastern Africa has gon live. The BBC’s Anne Waithera, in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, finds a nation impatient to join the broadband revolution.

In a busy cyber cafe in Nairobi dozens of people, mostly young, are hunched over computers surfing the net.

I try to strike up a conversation with one of them but he will not even look my way. Without looking up from the monitor he signals with his hand that I should wait until he is done.

This is perfectly understandable. It costs slightly less than $1 to surf for about an hour in a cyber-cafe in Nairobi and internet connection speeds are very slow. But he is ready to talk after he pays his bill.

“It’s not good. It’s hanging and keeps wasting time and frustrating me,” he says.

Another frustrated user complains: “I’ve spent more than 15 minutes instead of 10.”

But things are about to change for these internet users.

The Seacom undersea fibre-optic cable goes live on Thursday, promising changes that will be felt right across eastern and southern Africa.

Taxpayers’ money is being used to help private companies sell arms to repressive regimes and conflict zones. Long standing GreenNet member CAAT is campaigning to end government support for this deadly work. The ExCeL centre in East London and Clarion Events have invited arms dealers from all over the world to another ARMS FAIR

There is still time, with your help, to get this evil event cancelled.

Next Musical Protests
more supporters (musical and non-musical) welcome and needed!

• Saturday 1st August 2009, 2pm-5pm, at The ExCeL Exhibition Centre (Custom House DLR Station) This is the Triathlon swimming, running and cycling event. Some of the participants will be sponsored for charities working for victims orphaned or disabled by the arms trade.
• Saturday 5th September 2009, 2pm-5pm, at The ExCeL Exhibition Centre (Custom House DLR Station)

As protests continue in Iran, details are emerging of the technology used to monitor its citizens. Iran is well known for filtering the net, but the government has moved to do the same for mobile phones. Nokia Siemens Network has confirmed it supplied Iran with the technology needed to monitor, control, and read local telephone calls.

It told the BBC that it sold a product called the Monitoring Centre to Iran Telecom in the second half of 2008.

Data inspection

Nokia Siemens, a joint venture between the Finnish and German companies, supplied the system to Iran through its Intelligent Solutions business, which was sold in March 2009 to Perusa Partners Fund 1LP, a German investment firm.

The product allows authorities to monitor any communications across a network, including voice calls, text messaging, instant messages, and web traffic.

But Nokia Siemens says the product is only being used, in Iran, for the monitoring of local telephone calls on fixed and mobile lines.

Rather than just block traffic, it is understood that the monitoring system can also interrogate data to see what information is being passed back and forth.

A spokesman described the system as “a standard architecture that the world’s governments use for lawful intercept”.