<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">info</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:info@xnet-x.net">info@xnet-x.net</a>></span><br>Date: Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 5:11 PM<br>Subject: [xnet-news] XNET'S REPORT ON CATALAN REFERENDUM: DIGITAL REPRESSION AND RESISTANCE<br>To: <a href="mailto:xnet-news@listas.xnet-x.net">xnet-news@listas.xnet-x.net</a><br><br><br>
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<p><span class="m_882241726283179920author-a-z83ztf1z85zz85zhaz74zz80zz81zo9z80zy7 m_882241726283179920b"><b>XNET'S
REPORT ON CATALAN REFERENDUM: DIGITAL REPRESSION AND
RESISTANCE:</b></span></p>
<p><a class="m_882241726283179920moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://xnet-x.net/en/digital-repression-and-resistance-catalan-referendum/" target="_blank">https://xnet-x.net/en/digital-<wbr>repression-and-resistance-<wbr>catalan-referendum/</a></p>
<p>============<br>
<br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>REPRESSION AND DIGITAL
RESISTANCE IN THE #CATALANREFERENDUM: Successes and failures
in the use of digital tools in Catalonia’s rebellion </b></span></font>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">The battle presently
being fought in the streets and polling stations in towns and
cities throughout Catalonia before, during and after October
1, in which a diverse civil society has come together in huge
numbers, putting their bodies and knowledge in the service of
the shared goal of defending what is considered to be real
democracy, has also had a crucial battleground in the case of
the Internet.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><i><b>September 7, 2017</b></i></span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">On September 7, 2017, the
Constitutional Court declared the referendum in Catalonia
illegal.</span> </font><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">(</span></span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-politics-catalonia-court/spains-constitutional-court-suspends-catalan-referendum-law-court-source-idUSKCN1BI2TE" target="_blank"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">https://www.reuters.com/<wbr>article/us-spain-politics-<wbr>catalonia-court/spains-<wbr>constitutional-court-suspends-<wbr>catalan-referendum-law-court-<wbr>source-idUSKCN1BI2TE</span></span></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">)</span> Thenceforth, the Spanish government
embarked on legal, police, and administrative persecution of
any “device or instrument that is to be used for preparing or
holding the referendum”, including ballot boxes and papers
which were now criminal objects. Websites, apps and tools
related with the referendum were closed on the Internet.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">Independently of whether
one agrees or disagrees with the decision of the Spanish
courts to ban the referendum, the closing of many regular
Internet spaces can be viewed, in a great number of cases, as
a grave violation of freedom of expression—and especially
freedom of political opinion—which is protected in
international treaties and by Article 11 of the European
Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights (<a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/pdf/text_es.pdf#page=11" target="_blank">http://www.europarl.europa.<wbr>eu/charter/pdf/text_e</a></span></font><a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/pdf/text_es.pdf#page=11" target="_blank"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">n</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">.pdf#<wbr>page=11</span></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">) on “Freedom of
expression and information”. While some websites, apps and
domains belong to the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia
and were tools directly linked with organizing the referendum,
many others were of private individuals or associations, and
basically reflect political opinions. It is clear that one
thing—arguable or not—is banning a referendum and quite
another is </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>blocking, while they were at it, the right to
express one’s political opinion </b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">that the referendum
should be held.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">In the last few days,
Catalonia has been the testing ground of what we have always
denounced or, in other words, the fact that the space of the
Internet has yet again been subjected to a state of exception
which “democratic” governments wouldn’t dare to apply to
physical space because this violation of rights would
immediately be visible. Proof of this is that many of the
shut-down websites belong to associations with physical
premises but no authority has risked ordering that these
centers should be closed.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <font face="Arial, serif">Internet access is
essential for the exercise of our freedoms and should be
considered in itself a fundamental right #KeepItOn. <a href="https://www.accessnow.org/keepiton/" target="_blank">https://www.accessnow.org/<wbr>keepiton/</a></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>If we let the space of
the Internet become the first casualty in the curtailment of
basic rights, we can be sure that the next step will be to
limit those rights in other spaces as well.</b></span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><i><b>September 13, 2017</b></i></span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">On September 13 a court
order shut down the web page </span></font><font face="Arial,
serif"><span lang="en-US"><i><a href="http://referendum.cat" target="_blank">referendum.cat</a></i></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"> (</span></font><a href="http://www.catalannews.com/politics/item/catalan-government-opens-new-referendum-website-after-original-is-shut-down-by-spain" target="_blank"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">http://www.catalannews.com/<wbr>politics/item/catalan-<wbr>government-opens-new-<wbr>referendum-website-after-<wbr>original-is-shut-down-by-spain</span></span></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><wbr>). Thus began a game of
cat-and-mouse between the Spanish government (with its state
repression) and the Catalan government. </span></font> </p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">Some citizens published
the referendum web code in Github. After this, clones of the
website began to appear, created by volunteer citizens in
domains with names like </span></font><font face="Arial,
serif"><span lang="en-US"><i><a href="http://piolin.cat" target="_blank">piolin.cat</a> </i></span></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">(where
</span></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial,
serif"><span lang="en-US"><i>piolin</i></span></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">
refers to Tweetie Pie, painted on the boat accommodating
Spanish police)</span></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><i>, </i></span></font></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><i>referendum.ninja o
<a href="http://marianorajoy.cat" target="_blank">marianorajoy.cat</a></i></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">, while alternative sites were also made
available by the Generalitat itself. </span></font> </p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">The police operation
continues with domains being shut down and access blocked to
all these sites as well as many other web pages with opinions
about the referendum, including those of associations, sports
clubs and private sites. All of this was occurring against a
background of politicians being arrested and presidents of
civil society associations being charged with sedition.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>In ten days more than
140 websites were blocked. </b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">The project OONI by Tor
includes a non-exhaustive list of affected domains and
information on the type of block (<a href="https://ooni.torproject.org/post/internet-censorship-catalonia-independence-referendum/" target="_blank">https://ooni.torproject.org/<wbr>post/internet-censorship-<wbr>catalonia-independence-<wbr>referendum/</a>).</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">As part of this state
operation, the </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>Guardia Civil raided the headquarters of </b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>Top Level Domain </b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><i><b>.cat</b></i></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">, confiscating IT
equipment and data, and detaining one of its IT staff. This
disproportionate measure, which is unprecedented in the
European Union, implies the possibility of opening the way for
something we have been struggling against for years, namely </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>domain managers being
held responsible for content</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">The UN Rapporteur on
Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the Internet Society, the
Electronic Founder Foundation, and many other organizations
like our own have condemned this blocking of websites and the
inordinate digital repression carried out by the Spanish
government just days before the referendum was held, which
meant that there was no chance to establish their validity,
suitability and legality because they left no time to do so.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><span lang="en-US">(</span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/cat-domain-casualty-catalonian-independence-crackdown" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">https://www.eff.org/<wbr>deeplinks/2017/09/cat-domain-<wbr>casualty-catalonian-<wbr>independence-crackdown</span></font></font></a></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><a href="https://www.internetsociety.org/news/statements/2017/internet-society-statement-internet-blocking-measures-catalonia-spain/" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">https://www.internetsociety.<wbr>org/news/statements/2017/<wbr>internet-society-statement-<wbr>internet-blocking-measures-<wbr>catalonia-spain/</span></font></font></a></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22176&LangID=E" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">http://www.ohchr.org/EN/<wbr>NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.<wbr>aspx?NewsID=22176&LangID=E</span></font></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">)</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">In this situation of
persecution</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b> </b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">and</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b> very serious violation of rights</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">, many people, moved by
their convictions and without proper legal advice, have
exposed themselves to risks which could have been avoided in
some cases, and have left their identities at the mercy of a
repressive apparatus that needs scapegoats to justify its
actions. The open use of names among the alleged authors of
the first mirror sites has meant that the authorities are now
boasting that they have rounded up the young perpetrators (as
many as 14) (</span></font><a href="http://www.europapress.es/catalunya/noticia-libertad-cargos-13-investigados-clonar-webs-referendum-20170925193606.html" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">http://www.europapress.es/<wbr>catalunya/noticia-libertad-<wbr>cargos-13-investigados-clonar-<wbr>webs-referendum-<wbr>20170925193606.html</span></font></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">). Some of them face very
serious charges like “heading a seditious organization” which,
as everyone knows, makes no sense at all in a free, open space
like the Internet. These are definitely measures that aim to
inflict disproportionate punishment so as to bully and
intimidate citizens in an attempt to discourage their intense
online activity. (</span></font><a href="http://www.eldiario.es/cv/val/policia-proreferendum-Valencia-cabecilla-desobediencia_0_692231117.html" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">http://www.eldiario.es/cv/<wbr>val/policia-proreferendum-<wbr>Valencia-cabecilla-<wbr>desobediencia_0_692231117.html</span></font></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><wbr>).</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">One of the most common
errors made by citizens has been their frequent use of servers
with few and poor legal guarantees for the client. A case in
point is the insistent use of .cat domains. These come under
the control of .es, and therefore the Spanish state, which
shows no concern for civil rights, in contrast with other
generic domains (.net, .org, .com...) with are overseen by
ICANN and other organizations that do respect basic rights.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">We believe that it is
important to stress that </span></font><font face="Arial,
serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>we shouldn’t need martyrs to prove
that our struggles are just</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">. We must make every
possible effort to ensure that the people who are struggling
for their rights don’t suffer reprisals. In this regard, Xnet
has tried to give an overall explanation of how to avoid this
and other useful informatio</span></font><font face="Arial,
serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">n
in a Guide (</span></span></font><a href="https://xnet-x.net/en/how-to-guide-for-preserving-fundamental-rights-internet/" target="_blank"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">https://xnet-x.net/en/how-to-<wbr>guide-for-preserving-<wbr>fundamental-rights-internet/</span></span></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">)</span></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent"> that seeks
to protect people who work with the Internet from unjust
repression. This </span></span></font><font face="Arial,
serif"><span lang="en-US">initiative is part of a set of actions
designed by the lawyers and organizations of #SomDefensores to
defend basic rights.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">NET</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"> DEMOCRACY: DISTRIBUTED
GOVERNMENT</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">We have seen a
Generalitat that is competent and farsighted in its online
activity but, in particular, we also note that the
acceleration of events in Catalonia has catalyzed the
population into a massive use of digital tools in defense of
their basic rights. Unlike similar situations, such as that in
Turkey for example, the Catalan institutions have agreed in
recent days to </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>cede and share, in a widely distributed
manner, responsibility for safeguarding freedoms</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">, thus regularizing what
we see as the embryo of what could be a </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>truly transversal
democracy worthy of the digital age</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">, as some of us have
already proposed in our discussion of the methodology of the </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">device</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"> Red Ciudadana P</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">artido X (</span></span></font><a href="https://partidox.org/en/" target="_blank"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">https://partidox.org/en</span></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">/</span></span></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">).</span></span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">The president of
Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont—thanks also to help from
international experts who have actively and continually been
engaged in providing advice for the defense of rights (people
like Julian Assange and Peter Sunde)—have recommended the use
of proxies in social networks in order to gain access to
blocked websites (</span></font><a href="https://twitter.com/KRLS/status/909126641145798656" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">https://twitter.com/KRLS/<wbr>status/909126641145798656</span></font></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">). He subsequently
announced that IPFS (</span></font><a href="https://twitter.com/KRLS/status/911482634789953536" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">https://twitter.com/KRLS/<wbr>status/911482634789953536</span></font></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">) had also been used as a
distributed tool for housing the website giving citizens
information about where they should go to vote.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><i><b>September 23, 2017</b></i></span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">On September 23, the High
Court of Justice of Catalonia ordered the “</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>blocking of websites
and domains [giving this information] which are publicized
in any account or official social network of any kind</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">” (</span></font><a href="http://www.elmundo.es/cataluna/2017/09/23/59c69496468aeb8c7f8b45bb.html" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">http://www.elmundo.es/<wbr>cataluna/2017/09/23/<wbr>59c69496468aeb8c7f8b45bb.html</span></font></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">)<wbr>. This was not just a
matter of a specific list of sites but a general order giving
a free hand to forces of security in ordering Internet
providers to shut down websites.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">With these new powers,
the Guardia Civil blocked the domain <a href="http://gateway.ipfs.io" target="_blank">gateway.ipfs.io</a> (</span></font><a href="https://twitter.com/AlexHinojo/status/911900292152791041" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">https://twitter.com/<wbr>AlexHinojo/status/<wbr>911900292152791041</span></font></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">) and thereby cut off
connection, not only to the referendum website, but also to
all content from the Spanish state hosted in IPFS through this
gateway. The shutdown extended to websites of nongovernmental
organizations and movements like </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><i><a href="http://empaperem.cat" target="_blank">empaperem.cat</a>,
<a href="http://assemblea.cat" target="_blank">assemblea.cat</a> y <a href="http://webdelsi.cat" target="_blank">webdelsi.cat</a></i></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"> which are in favor of
the referendum. This carrying out of the court order also
extended to GooglePlay, which was forced to withdraw the app
allowing people to find information about where to vote.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">Nevertheless, </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>at all times the whole
population of Catalonia has been able to keep informed about
polling stations</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"> thanks to continuous </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>replication</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"> and </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>massive use of VPN and
anonymous browsing </b></span></font><font face="Arial,
serif"><span lang="en-US">in order to access sites that were
blocked from Spain. This capacity for </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>action distributed
between the government and organized citizens</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"> has been the trend
throughout the electoral process, with large-scale use of
chats, networks and other tools that have allowed swift
circulation of information circulated on the micro-scale and
among strangers who are working together to deal with hoaxes,
leaks and infiltrations. </span></font> </p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">This </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>networked action</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"> by means of which people
have, for example, organized themselves, polling station by
polling station, has also been manifest in physical spaces,
for example with regard to protecting the ballot boxes from
police seizure (</span></font><a href="http://www.ara.cat/tema_del_dia/referendum-Que-gestar-se-Elna_0_1880212030.html" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">http://www.ara.cat/tema_del_<wbr>dia/referendum-Que-gestar-se-<wbr>Elna_0_1880212030.html</span></font></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">).</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">For a month, the state
security forces and their secret services have been searching
all over Catalonia for the ballot boxes and voting papers.
Although they have raided printers, media offices and
headquarters of political parties and other
organizations—sometimes without a court order—</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>the ballot boxes were
never found, yet they magically appeared in the polling
stations</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">. The ballot boxes and papers were there—they
were everywhere—guarded by </span></font><font face="Arial,
serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>small groups, autonomous nodes</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">, and spread all around
Catalonia.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><i><b>October 1,
referendum day</b></i></span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">Finally, even as the
referendum was taking place on October 1, the Spanish
government tried to block, by every means it could, the
possibility of accessing the “universal census” app of the
entire electoral register.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">The domain </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><i><a href="http://registremeses.com" target="_blank">registremeses.com</a> </i></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">where the app was hosted
was immediately blocked. The Generalitat quickly supplied the
more than 1,000 polling stations throughout Catalonia with
alternative IPs for access. We believe that, in this case, it
probably would have been better to work with </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">Hidden Service in order
to avoid police harassment and DDoS attacks by groups opposing
the referendum.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">Internet connection was
also interrupted (</span></font><a href="http://www.ara.cat/tema_del_dia/Violencia-tambe-digital-contra-referendum_0_1880212015.html" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">http://www.ara.cat/tema_del_<wbr>dia/Violencia-tambe-digital-<wbr>contra-referendum_0_<wbr>1880212015.html</span></font></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">) and it is not yet known
who is responsible. Could it have been Internet suppliers
obeying state orders (although they deny it)?</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">However, the polling
stations still managed to function, almost all of them ro</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">u</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">ting the smartphones of
the volunteers in order to access the Internet</span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>. In the street,
people were chorusing “airplane mode”</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"> so as to save network
bandwidth for people working inside the polling stations. The
operation lasted from 5 a.m.—which is when citizens began
filling the streets to protect the polling stations—until
midnight when the vote count ended. All this was achieved in
the midst of violent charges by National Police with a toll of
more than 800 wounded. Despite everything, more than 2,200,000
people came out to vote.</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">ORDER IS THE PEOPLE,
EQUAL TO EQUAL: DISORDER IS THIS STATE AND ITS VIOLENCE</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>The citizens and
government of Catalonia have learned and are witnesses to
the fact that in the front line of defense of our democracy,
digital resistance depends on our use of technological tools
which allow us to protect our rights autonomously and in a
well distributed manner</b></span></font><font face="Arial,
serif"><span lang="en-US">. We hope that the Catalan government
will never forget this and that its administration will always
resist the temptation of the usual kind of discourse that
criminalizes tools protecting privacy, encryption and
decentralization of the Internet. </span></font> </p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">Moreover, when repression
was massively unleashed in streets and villages of Catalonia,
the social networks and their intelligent use by citizens were
once again used to put an end to the blocking and manipulation
of information by the mainstream media in Spain, and to let
the international media outlets know what was really
happening. Perhaps in 2017, many people were already used to
this, but it is also highly possible that there have never
been so many published videos and photographs documenting
police violence as there have been this time (</span></font><a href="https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/914450692416397312" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">https://twitter.com/<wbr>joncstone/status/<wbr>914450692416397312</span></font></font></a><span lang="en-US">). </span> </p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>Without the widespread
use of social networks to testify and inform, the people of
Catalonia would have been totally isolated and crushed with
absolute impunity.</b></span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">From this point of view,
what has been happening in the last few days is historic. This
acceleration towards a greater degree of democracy and more
power in civil society is happening spontaneously but the </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>ignorance of most
people about some aspects of the digital milieu is exposing
them to risks</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"> and, in this regard, this is what we must make,
and are making, every effort to avoid (<a href="https://xnet-x.net/en/how-to-guide-for-preserving-fundamental-rights-internet/" target="_blank">https://xnet-x.net/en/how-to-<wbr>guide-for-preserving-<wbr>fundamental-rights-internet/</a>).</span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><i><b>October 1, 2017 as
a beginning</b></i></span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">On October 1, 2017 </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>the politicians were
nowhere to be seen. Only </b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>Unidos Pode</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b><span style="background:transparent">mos (</span></b></span></font><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidos_Podemos" target="_blank"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b><span style="background:transparent">https://en.wikipedia.org/<wbr>wiki/Unidos_Podemos</span></b></span></font></a><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b><span style="background:transparent">) could be heard
now-and-then, trying to capitalize on our wounded for its
ow</span></b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>n ends. Apart this, there were only grassroots
people organizing and acting</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">, including some members
of parliament and councilors who are people like anyone else.
Over 24 hours, civil society came together to work for a day
in which people could vote and vote on a huge scale and,
furthermore, it didn’t fall into the temptation of responding
to the state’s provocation in the form of violence, even
though hundreds of injured people needed medical attention.
There was happiness, anger and fraternity among the most
different people. It was incredibly moving. There were no
slogans, no shouting, so that people could vote without being
coerced in </span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>this display of a valiant, stirring capacity
for organization and desire for democracy.</b></span></font></p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b>On October 1, 2017 we
proved that order is the people and disorder is this state</b></span></font><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US">. </span></font> </p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%" lang="en-US"> <br>
</p>
<p class="m_882241726283179920western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%"><i><b><font face="Arial, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span style="background:transparent">Xnet</span></span></font></b></i></p>
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<br></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: <a href="http://commonstransition.org" target="_blank">http://commonstransition.org</a> </div><div><br></div>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br><br><a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank"></a>Updates: <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br><br>#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a> <br></div></div></div></div>
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