{"id":129018,"date":"2016-07-04T14:48:12","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T12:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=129018"},"modified":"2016-07-04T14:53:51","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T12:53:51","slug":"south-africa-says-no-thanks-to-internet-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/129018\/south-africa-says-no-thanks-to-internet-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa says no thanks to Internet freedom in UN vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa has tried to remove provisions from a United Nations resolution that would prevent countries from switching off the Internet for any reason, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theregister.co.uk\/2016\/07\/01\/un_officially_condemns_internet_shutdowns\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Register reported<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Following the passing of the resolution, freedom of expression organisation Article 19 expressed disappointment with South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocracies like South Africa, Indonesia, and India voted in favour of these hostile amendments to weaken protections for freedom of expression online\u201d, said Article 19.<\/p>\n<p>The resolution was titled \u201cThe promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet\u201d, and was adopted when more than 70 states supported it on 1 July.<\/p>\n<p>States are bound to refrain from \u201cmeasures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This includes measures to shut down the Internet or part of the Internet at any time, such as during an election or in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, said Article 19.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"southafricavotesagainstinternetforall\">South Africa votes against Internet for all<\/h3>\n<p>A\u00a0\u201chuman rights-based approach\u201d was also included in the resolution, to provide and expand access to the Internet.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa was one of 15 countries that voted in favour of an amendment led by China and Russia to have this section removed.<\/p>\n<p>Other countries which voted with South Africa included Burundi, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"southafricavotesagainsthumanrightsonline\">South Africa votes against human rights online<\/h3>\n<p>Another amendment aimed to remove references to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and language on freedom of expression from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.<\/p>\n<p>States voting in favour of the amendment included South Africa,\u00a0Bolivia, China, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p><em>The full resolution is available <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.article19.org\/data\/files\/Internet_Statement_Adopted.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">on Article 19\u2019s website<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on the internet<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/95915\/cabinet-approves-sa-internet-censorship-bill\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Cabinet approves SA Internet censorship bill<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/92374\/south-africa-and-internet-censorship-where-are-we-heading\/\">South Africa and Internet censorship: where are we heading?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/92778\/sas-online-censorship-plans-could-go-another-route\/\">SA\u2019s online censorship plans could go another route<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa has tried to remove provisions from a United Nations resolution that would prevent countries from switching off the Internet for any reason, The Register reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":70463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-129018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129018"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129034,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129018\/revisions\/129034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}