Last month, US-based Sandvine, which is owned by the private equity firm Francisco Partners, said it would stop selling its equipment in Belarus after Bloomberg News reported that it was used to censor the internet during a crucial election. In explaining its decision, the company said it abhors “the use of technology to suppress the free flow of information resulting in human rights violations.”
But the company’s equipment – which is often used to manage the flow of network traffic – has also been used to censor the internet in more than a dozen countries in recent years, according to three current, five former employees and company documents. Those countries include Algeria, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Eritrea, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan, according to Sandvine sales records with government agencies and network operators – both private and government-controlled, Bloomberg News said.
In those countries, Sandvine’s website blocking feature has enabled politically-motivated filtering of news and social media websites and messaging apps, according to the current and former Sandvine employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential transactions. In addition, Sandvine has continued to provide updates and technical expertise to many of those customers, according to the employees and the documents.
Sandvine declined to comment on specific deals with countries or network providers. But it said in a written statement that its technology to manage internet traffic, which incorporates blocking and filtering technology, is “used to protect networks and subscribers every day from billions of malicious internet transactions linked to illicit and illegal activities, such as child pornography, human trafficking, terrorism and the spread of malware.” As such, the equipment is ubiquitous and “a critical component of reliable and secure internet.”
“It is not intended to thwart human rights or block the broad, free flow of information,” the company’s statement said. “In fact, it is designed to do the opposite — to ensure that citizens have high quality and better access to information worldwide.”
Sandvine makes equipment that can be used to manage massive flows of internet data as it passes in and out of countries. The equipment, known as “deep packet inspection” technology, can block spam and viruses. But it can also be deployed to blacklist millions of websites and messaging apps so that they cannot be accessed, according to the company’s documents.
