Sandvine, Francisco Partners Faces Growing Pressure To Be Accountable For Censorship Tools
After it became known that censorship equipment sold by Sandvine contributed to the Internet shutdown in Belarus, Access Now teamed up with the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and digital security experts Ron Deibert and Christopher Parsons to send the letter California Attorney General Xavier Becerre to investigate the activities of Sandvine and its owners Francisco Partners, as well as other relevant owners and investors for potential legal violations arising from their contracts with Belarus, such as due diligence and non-compliance with disclosure requirements, deceptive and unfair conduct business, as well as a possible violation of US sanctions against Belarus.
“There are now 45 days of peaceful protests against the controversial elections in Belarus, during which the Belarusian people were subjected to serious human rights abuses, including severe beatings, torture and enforced disappearances ,” said Natalya Krapiva, Technical Counsel for Access Now.
“These violations were made possible thanks to Sandvine technology, which helps the government silence protesters, prevent detainees and abducted persons from reporting their whereabouts, and prevents journalists from reporting on these issues. Sandvine and other companies involved in this censorship should be held accountable. ”
While Attorney General Becerra is considering an investigation, we reiterate our call because, despite Sandvine's announcement of severing ties with Belarus, censorship equipment is still in the government's possession and abuses already committed with this technology are ignored. The Business and Human Rights Resource Center relayed Access Now's calls to Sandvine and Francisco Partners to discuss using their tools in Belarus to disrupt Internet access during elections and mass protests. Sandvine pointed to her general PR statement, to which Francisco Partners did not respond. Members of the Belarusian diaspora also protested in front of the Francisco Partners office in San Francisco and in five other cities,requiring companies to stop all transactions with the government of Belarus, recall censorship equipment and take measures to prevent future abuse.
“We are asking California's highest legal authority to account for human rights violations directly related to companies incorporated in its jurisdiction ,” said Peter Meechek, Consul General of Access Now.
“Tech companies like Sandvine and investors like Francisco Partners have recklessly - and predictably - cracked down on dictators and spies. The upcoming public offering by surveillance company Palantir presents policymakers with an urgent need to control the export of governments that have repeatedly violated human rights, apply human rights due diligence rules, and isolate and punish perpetrators at the state and federal levels. ”
To this end, the EU Parliament, Commission and Council met on 22 September to discuss amendments to the EU. dual-use export control regulations. Despite the fact that Sandvine is a company with American and Canadian roots, EU politicians discussed the company's participation in Belarus during negotiations and are now considering including DPI technology in the updated regulation. Access Now supports this development, but reiterates its previous call for additional measures to prevent abuse, such as relevant human rights standards, mandatory human rights impact assessments in due diligence processes, a functional mechanism for overarching and EU monitoring, a checklist, and mandatory transparency and disclosure criteria for export licenses by member states.
"Companies should be responsible for conducting a thorough and meaningful assessment of the impact on human rights when they are exporting surveillance technology or spyware, especially in view of the extent to which they can be used against journalists and others who seek to draw the government's responsibility" , - said Courtney S. Radsh, director of the advocacy Committee to protect journalists. “I doubt this will be the last time we see a company involved in egregious abuses such as in Belarus, so we urge the authorities to take immediate steps to ensure safeguards that will ultimately help protect fundamental rights such as freedom of the press ”.
A recent investigation by Qurium and Egyptian media site Al Manassa found Sandvine's Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology is also used in Egypt, where over 600 websites have been blocked since 2017, more than 100 of which are media and news sites. ...