Internet Service Providers block e-mails with political content

By Lance Guma
22 June 2006

The Interception of Communications Bill is still in draft form but already there are complaints that e-mails containing political content are being blocked by some Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) in Zimbabwe. The news will not go down well with most e-mail users who have turned to this mode of communication to try and either access or pass on information about events in the country. Service providers in Zimbabwe include Telconet, Africa Online, Mango, Mweb and Zimbabwe Online.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for example has installed a mail content manager that blocks its employees from receiving any e-mails with words that are deemed political. An e-mail with text like ‘Morgan Tsvangirai’ or ‘MDC’ in its body will not reach the intended receipient at the bank. Investigations by Newsreel show that the Central Bank’s mail system runs through Tel One (Pvt) Ltd, a government owned company that provides an internet hub through its Com-One subsidiary for all the other ISP’s. Its not clear if the mail content manager is being run for all e-mail users or just the Reserve Bank system. United States based NetIQ, a provider of security management solutions, supplied the software that is being used.

Shadreck Nkala the Chairman of the Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association (ZISPA) denied any knowledge of ISP’s blocking political e-mails. Responding to questions Nkala says he is not aware of any of their members who are engaging in this practice. Asked why the Reserve Bank e-mail server was blocking e-mails to its employees he promised to investigate the matter and give us feedback. Nkala remained adamant the complaints were not justified insisting that Telconet, a company he is Chief Executive of, was actually carrying out the servicing and maintenance of the RBZ platform. He says he would know if blocking was happening.

He conceded the proposed new bill giving government the power to spy on e-mails and phone calls will cost them financially. Not only will they require huge financial injections to install monitoring equipment, they also risk losing customers who are set to flock to secure e-mail providers like Yahoo, Hotmail and Hushmail. Experts say its highly unlikely government will be able to snoop on e-mails run on external platforms. In June 2004 ZISPA issued a statement assuring its customers that none of its members had signed an agreement with Tel One to facilitate the monitoring of e-mails but the issue seems to have come back courtesy of governments renewed attempts at spying on its citizens.
NB: See below a copy a message you will get if you e-mail anything ‘political’ to Central bank employees.

‘MailMarshal (an automated content monitoring gateway) has not delivered the following message: From….. To…… Subject: Morgan Tsvangirai…..,
This is due to automatic rules that have determined that the intended recipient is not authorized to receive messages that have political content.

If you believe the message was business related please contact ….. and request that the message be released to its intended recipient. If no contact is made within 5 days the message will automatically be deleted. MailMarshal Rule: Content Security (Inbound) : Political
Email Content Security provided by Net IQ Mail Marshal.’