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R2K demands answers over cyber security deal with China

Two weeks ago South Africa’s Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services revealed that it has signed a pact with China regarding cyber security and ICT. According to Minister Dr Siyabonga Cwele it is a “Plan of Action on areas of cooperation in ICTs”.

Sparse details of the agreement have been made known, and now the Right2Know Campaign has demanded that more details about the pact be made public.

“The Right2Know Campaign notes with grave concern South Africa’s recent signing of a joint ‘plan of action’ on information and communication technology (ICT) with China. R2K demands that the co-operation agreement immediately be made public,” it said in a media statement.

R2K’s concern is that China is one of the most repressive countries in the world when it comes to the internet and access for its users.

“The country’s highly restrictive and often arbitrary internet regulations are overseen by several powerful and highly authoritarian bureaucracies, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and are governed by an overriding concern with political stability and state security at the expense of internet freedom.”

The agreement poses a number of questions, and R2K is concerned about South Africa will increase its online spying capabilities by partnering with China.

“R2K is seriously concerned that, in partnering with China on issues of internet governance and cyber-security, our own government’s aim is to learn the trade of internet censorship from their counterparts. R2K demands that the co-operation agreement immediately be made public.”

The Film and Publications Board (FPB) recently announcement that it wants to regulate what happens on the internet in the country, and R2k is of the opinion that this is only the start.

“It is extremely worrying that South Africa’s government is co-operating with China on internet-related matters. Our government has already given its citizens reason to be seriously concerned about internet freedom after the Film and Publications Board recently gazetted a draconian set of draft regulations for online content, large parts of which read as if they were lifted straight from a Chinese government textbook.”

[Image – CC by 2.0/Dennis Jarvis]

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