Jeff Landale

After two weeks of voting, the “winner” of our Telco Hall of Shame is AT&T, who was nominated for being BFF’s with the NSA. The US-based telecommunications company won with nearly a quarter of the the vote, followed by another American telco, Verizon, with 17%.

Yesterday marked the two-year anniversary of the internet and mobile network blackout designed to undermine the anti-government protests in Egypt. This event catapulted the issue of telecoms and human rights onto the international stage. To mark this anniversary, Access has sent a letter to the telecommunication sector’s Industry Dialogue on Freedom of Expression and Privacy, an industry working group that arose in the aftermath of the incident. The letter addresses the failure of the major telecoms involved to provide principled guidance to the industry and issues a statement of expectations to governments that would request restrictions on user rights.

Two years ago, amidst the protests in Tahrir Square, telcos in Egypt shut down their networks, cutting of citizens from the global internet. Since then, the telecom industry has made promises to develop rights-respecting guidelines and principles, but has failed to deliver.