Attendees at the
Cop27 climate meeting have found that the conference internet connection blocks access to the global rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) as well as other key news websites needed for information during the talks.
HRW is due to lead a panel discussion at Cop27 along with Amnesty International, whose website is accessible on the conference wifi. The list of blocked sites also includes the blogging platform Medium, Egypt’s lone independent news outlet, Mada Masr, and the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera.
Alexandria Villaseñor, an activist who leads the youth climate organisation Earth Uprising,
tweeted: “There are so many blocked websites in Egypt at
#Cop27, that it is noticeable and hard for us to work. We can’t use our
@Earth_Uprising Medium site, because Medium is blocked. News agencies we refer to are blocked.” She added: “There is no climate action without truth and information.”
Observers and conference attendees fear the blockages at Cop27 are part of the Egyptian authorities’ efforts to separate vital climate negotiations from human rights issues, controlling what participants in the remote resort of Sharm el-Sheikh can see about Egypt’s decades-long record of cracking down on human rights and
limiting their understanding of the country where the talks are taking place.
Egyptian telecoms providers temporarily lifted a ban on voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls at Cop27, such as WhatsApp calling. Yet the authorities left in place a sophisticated and broad system for blocking websites deemed critical of the Egyptian authorities, including independent media and human rights organisations. Internet freedom groups including Qurium and
Citizen Lab have documented how deep packet inspection technology provided by the Canadian company Sandvine permits the Egyptian authorities to block websites at will.
