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.
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.
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.
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.