Petition Assad's silent telecom partner

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Gunfire is raging outside your door and explosions are shaking your house, but you can't call a single person or connect to the internet to find out what's going on. This isolation isn't from downed power lines or bad luck. It's because someone turned off the switch. And that was made possible by MTN, an international telecommunications company with 175 million subscribers worldwide.

 

Click here to call on MTN, a major telecommunications operator in Syria and Iran, to stop enabling repressive regimes to commit human rights abuses.


mtn Respect rights or get out


MTN, an international telecommunications company with 175 million subscribers worldwide, has one of the most offensive human rights records in the industry. Join us in calling on MTN to stop enabling dictators to commit human rights abuses.

 

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Though you may have never heard of them, they are quietly supporting repressive regimes in Syria, Iran, and Zimbabwe everyday by letting governments spy on its users and by reportedly shutting down communication networks in areas under military attack.

Now, MTN has the audacity to send its PR team to ask us how to improve its public image. We told them their problem is not how MTN is perceived, but what it does. Our advice was clear: Stop enabling dictators to violate the rights of their citizens. They said our conversation was confidential, but we told them it was public and that we'd be consulting our members before getting back to them.

 

Click here to join us in telling MTN to respect human rights or get out, and leave them an (optional) message of your own.

One by one, we are challenging telcos on their human rights policies. Just last month, we asked Vodafone at its annual shareholder meeting to come clean on government requests for user data, especially in known rights-abusing states. And now, thanks to over 10,000 of you who endorsed our question, they have invited us to engage in a direct dialogue with them to establish new practices founded on respect for human rights.


Now we are turning our attention to MTN, which is doing little to prevent authoritarian governments from committing human rights abuses. But their attempts to improve how they are viewed demonstates just how scared they are of a public revolt against their company.

We've got their attention -- now let's tell them what we think. Click here to tell MTN to stand up for the rights of its users living under repressive regimes. 


With your support,
The Access Team

 

 

FURTHER READING:
Mobiles, Internet cut in Syria's Aleppo: activists
AdaptiveMobile Drops Iran Contracts On Gear For Text Monitoring
Vodafone Chairman Ignores Human Rights Duties
Iranian Police Seizing Dissidents Get Aid Of Western Companies
Human Rights Commission asked to investigate MTN

 


 

Access is an international NGO that promotes open access to the internet as a means to free, full and safe participation in society and the realization of human rights.