Tuesday, November 27, 2018

The assault on my primary laptop runs into a record-breaking fourth week (WITH UPDATE - DAY 85 25/1/2019)

This is a splendid posting which in its moderate and modest tone should encourage many others to join you!!
http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/
-Don Collins, President of ISAF, an NGO dedicated to helping women

Our Church and State website has no less than 40 Nobel Prize winners on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).

British Telecom is one of the world's leading communications services companies. Declan pays BT £70 per month (£850 per year) for Superfast Fibre 2 Unlimited broadband (average speed 67Mb). We're well used to particular laptops being targeted with little or no internet speed, usually Declan's primary laptop; see my post of 9 August, British Telecom: Are drastically reduced internet speeds and 45-minute internet cuts to be the new norm? Declan has made countless phone calls to BT Customer Service and has dealt with BT Executive Level Complaints on multiple occasions. Now, since Facebook's 49th block against our Church and State website on 2 November (see here), I have been posting that it has been once again my primary laptop that has been targeted. For only three out of the last 26 days have I had normal internet speeds (usually we have an internet speed of about 70Mb across four laptops). Declan has no such problem on his primary laptop. Today has been quite typical for me:


Re: Targeting of individual laptops (in bold)

Paragraph 41 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

41. In October 2017, SiteGround's solicitors told the Applicant to remove a popular article from the Church and State website for alleged copyright infringement or the site would be disabled by SiteGround pending his legal challenge by counter notice. The Applicant removed the article even though it had a Creative Commons licence applied to it, as do all Addicting Info articles. The Applicant's wife's Church and State blog has been attacked in various ways over the years: links have been broken and images exchanged, deleted or temporarily removed. So too have the Applicant and his wife's computers. In December 2015, the Applicant's wife's laptop was rendered incapable of publishing material on the Church and State website. She could not create a WordPress post, add images, or click on most of the platform's buttons. She had posted a video of the attack on her blog before the laptop was returned to normal functioning the following afternoon. Since September 2017, the internet connection speed on any one of their four laptops has been reduced from anything between 70-74Mbps to 0Mbps, usually disabling the targeted laptop, and for up to three weeks to date. The laptop most targeted for this form of attack is the Applicant's main laptop that cost him £600 in January 2017 (emphasis added). Their internet connection has been cut 184 times since 26 May 2017, most recently today on 8 May 2018 for a half an hour (the third cut of this duration). The Applicant pays British Telecom £850 per year for broadband. He has documented communication with BT Executive Level Complaints showing there has been no problem with his phone line.

UPDATE 25 January (11.37am): The previous record for this sort of attack is three weeks on Declan's primary laptop. This time around, my primary laptop has been messed about for 3 months (85 days), and Declan's primary laptop for going on two months (49 days). Last night my internet speed was 6Mb. On 12 January I posted a blog showing some of the awful speeds I am getting week in week out now; see my post of 12 January, The assault on our two primary laptops runs into a record-breaking sixth week. My primary laptop has been messed about for over ten weeks (WITH UPDATE 25/1/2019). This week, as has become the norm, I have only gone over 70Mb a handful of times. We are currently experiencing Facebook's 54th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015; see my post of 18 January, Facebook: The social network's 54th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015, and with no explanation as usual (WITH UPDATE - DAY 8 25/1/2019). Declan's primary laptop has been targeted to a lesser extent than mine since the day Facebook's 52nd block kicked off on 8 December 2018. Never before have we had our two primary laptops separately under attack in this way throughout the day (and every day all week, week in week out). From our point of view, given the excessive duration of this form of attack, and as a serious invasion of privacy, this ongoing targeting of individual laptops is at least as criminal as the removal of our flat door in 2012. (It was the Independent Police Complaints Commission's finding on that occasion that since our then live-in landlady had subsequently signed an undertaking to the County Court promising not to harass us, there was no requirement for the Metropolitan Police to take further action.)


Yesterday we were disconnected from the internet through our BT router for the 298th time since 26 May 2017, and we have treated our second BT YouView box for TV viewing as a virtual write-off since the day after we received it on 8 September 2017. The ridiculous and persistent fluctuating bandwidths we get through our BT YouView box - or the more extreme disconnection of the box from the internet whilst we are already connected online through the router - is a constant reminder that non-stop internet cuts through our BT router can kick off at any time with cuts that can last for hours, the longest being 3 1/4 hours on 16 August.
Internet cuts (since 26 May 2017)

173 cuts 2017
122 cuts 2018
Since May 2018*
- May 2018: 22 cuts
- June 2018 40 cuts
- July 2018 26 cuts
- August 2018: 16 cuts
- September 2018: 0 cuts
- October 2018: 3 cuts
- November 2018: 1 cut
- December 2018: 4 cuts
3 cuts 2019

* All cuts on old BT router (including in 2019). We have yet to install the BT router we received on 19 August 2018. The bandwidth on our 2nd BT YouView box is seldom enough to watch a various number of TV channels (and because of this, our TV usually operates off our TV aerial or our TV viewing restricted to the BBC iPlayer, i.e., when players and apps have not also been disabled, as has occurred five times since 10 December 2018 and for up to one day at a time). The fluctuating bandwidth on our 2nd BT YouView box – or the more extreme disconnection of the box from the internet whilst we are already connected online through the router - has been from the day after we received the box on 8 September 2017, and remains, a constant reminder with respect to whichever BT router we choose to use for our laptops.

7 July 2018: INTERNET CUTS: Are 45-minute Internet cuts to be the new norm? We pay British Telecom £850 per year for broadband (WITH UPDATE 24/1/2019: re 298th Internet cut since 26 May 2017).



Is Edward Snowden a Hero or Criminal? This is a solid documentary called #Citizenfour that may influence your thinking either way:



JOIN THE CONVERSATION #CITIZENFOUR

From My Picks:

10 January: Pre-Action Letter: The Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's hold communication notes against Declan in clear violation of his rights (WITH UPDATE 24/1/2019)

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan


'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/