![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/multichoice.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn its own submission on the whitepaper, the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) \u2014 which represents hundreds of ISPs \u2014 acknowledged the lack of a legal framework for blocking websites in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The association also recognised the global trend towards providing a mechanism for site blocking could play a role in protecting intellectual property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, it said that this mechanism should be properly constructed and implemented, and warned of several potential harmful impacts of blocking websites: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Breaking accessibility of the legal Internet<\/strong> \u2014 Site-blocking is imperfect and will lead to lawful content being blocked. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Increasing the cost to communicate <\/strong>\u2014 The additional cost associated with monitoring for illegal websites and related administration will be passed on to consumers. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Impact on local content industry<\/strong> \u2014 ISPA expects the vast majority of blocking requests will come from outside South Africa, with foreign parties claiming to hold the rights to local content. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Difficult for small ISPs to comply<\/strong> \u2014 Site-blocking can be technically complex and requires additional human resources, which could be a tall order for smaller service providers. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
ISPA also explained that site-blocking at the ISP level could be easily circumvented using a virtual private network or free recursive DNS resolver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The association also wants a clear legal position from the government that blocking websites will not be an offence under RICA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said ISPs must receive the same conditional legal immunity provided under the take-down notice process when they act on lawful instructions to block websites hosting illegal content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ISPA proposed that South Africa adopt the same model used in Australia to block offshore gambling websites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That mechanism empowers the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)\u2014the country’s equivalent of Icasa \u2014 to request ISPs’ help in disrupting access to illegal online content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mechanism includes detailed guidelines for implementation, including minimum thresholds for the sites to qualify for blocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These include that the website’s actions must:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Involve serious criminal or civil offences, or threats to national security; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- carry a maximum prison term of at least two years or a financial penalty of at least 120 Commonwealth penalty points (AU$37,560).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Australians or parties that have their websites blocked due to a request can also contact the ACMA directly through a form on its website to dispute blocks they believe were done in error. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MultiChoice’s call for new legal mechanisms that would require ISPs to block illegal streaming websites without a court order could have several unintended consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":553122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[96989,66538,85,96778,6364,47404,18268,475,125],"class_list":["post-559838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-audio-and-audio-visual-content-services","tag-department-of-communications-and-digital-technologies-dcdt","tag-dstv","tag-illegal-streaming-services","tag-intellectual-property","tag-internet-service-providers-isps","tag-internet-service-providers-association-ispa","tag-multichoice","tag-piracy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559838"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560121,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559838\/revisions\/560121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Increasing the cost to communicate <\/strong>\u2014 The additional cost associated with monitoring for illegal websites and related administration will be passed on to consumers. <\/li>\n\n\n\n