World biggest telecoms companies help Belarus regime stifle dissent - Amnesty International

Belarus authorities are using phone networks run by some of the world’s biggest telecoms companies to stifle free speech and dissent, said Amnesty International in a report published today.

The report, It’s enough for people to feel it exists: Civil society, secrecy and surveillance in Belarus, documents how potentially limitless, round-the-clock, unchecked surveillance has a debilitating effect on NGO activists, making basic work, like arranging a meeting over the phone, a risk.

“In a country where holding a protest or criticizing the president can get you arrested, even the threat that the authorities are spying on you can make the work of activists next to impossible,” said Joshua Franco, Technology and Human Rights Researcher at Amnesty International.

Telecoms companies, including ones owned by Telekom Austria Group and Turkcell, allow this to happen by granting the government nearly unlimited access to their customers’ communications and data. Operating in Belarus requires giving authorities remote-control access to all their users’ phone and internet communications.

“Companies that operate in Belarus have to let authorities have the data they want, when they want it. So if the KGB, for example, wants to spy on them, they don’t need to show a warrant, they don’t need to ask the company to give them access,” Joshua Franco added.

Telecoms companies’ responsibility

Telecoms companies have great responsibility, because technology usually empowers free speech, but the spread of communications technology in Belarus has increased the risk of repression, Amnesty International says. It is vital that telecoms companies resist the abuse of communications technology for outrageously intrusive violations of privacy and free expression, the organization stresses.

The report is based on interviews with more than 50 human rights activists, journalists, lawyers, political opposition members, technology experts and others, either in Belarus or in exile, between August 2015 and May 2016. It shows how fear of surveillance impacts privacy, free expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association.

International telecoms firms implicated

The three largest mobile phone providers in Belarus are partly owned by foreign companies:

• Velcom is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telekom Austria Group. Telekom Austria told Amnesty International it was obliged to follow Belarusian law. It publishes no information about how access to its Velcom customer data is managed. Telekom Austria is majority ownedby América Móvil. América Móvil did not respond to Amnesty International letters.

• Life:) is 80% owned by the Turkish company Turkcell, which is in turn 38% owned by the Swedish company Teliasonera. Teliasonera told Amnesty International that it has a firm policy opposing direct access to telecoms data, but says it cannot take responsibility for Turkcell’s actions because it is not a majority owner. Turkcell did not respond to Amnesty International letters.

• MTS is jointly owned by the Russian company MTS and Beltelecom, the state-owned Belarusian telecom. MTS (Belarus) did not respond to Amnesty International letters.

Amnesty International is calling on the Belarusian government to create checks and balances for surveillance practices to bring them in line with international human rights standards. It is also urging telecoms companies that own or part-own operators in Belarus to challenge laws that prevent them from protecting their customers’ privacy, and inform their customers in the country that their data will be available to the authorities at any time.

belsat.eu, via Amnesty.org