Is CCK right to require firms to host websites locally?

What you need to know:

  • If blogs critical to the government were hosted locally, it is definitely easier to move in on them and shut them down.
  • However, hosting critical infrastructure such as MPESA locally would offer some comfort from a national security point of view.
  • Content providers may find it cheaper to host abroad as opposed to trying to set-up local data centers that will be frequently subjected to power blackouts, expensive generators or sheer vandalism.

Recent reports indicate that the Communication Commission of Kenya is planning to play a more assertive role in the Internet content market in Kenya.

In a yet-to-be denied article in the Business Daily, CCK was reportedly planning to introduce regulations that would force Kenyan telecom operators, ISPs and other content providers such as media houses to host their online data locally.

It is true that hosting data locally may improve response times, avoid international bandwidth costs and retain capital that would otherwise be paid to foreign hosting companies.

However, analysts on the local Kenya ICT Action Network site felt that the drive for such a regulation had more to do with perceived national security rather than the above business benefits.

They felt that government, through the regulator, wanted a greater control of cyberspace in order to clamp down on blogs and other social media sites that are increasingly critical of government policies and actions.

If such blogs were hosted locally, it is definitely easier to move in on them and shut them down - if and when required by a court order or other national security concerns.

From a government point of view, the argument is that a role in cyberspace that corresponds to the ever- increasing amount of our national economy that is moving online is justified. Government is indeed obliged to protect the public from organized cyber criminals and possibly hostile foreign governments.

As an example, consider the simple fact that the MPESA financial platform is hosted abroad and yet it carries over 90 per cent of all our consolidated mobile financial transactions.

In the unlikely event that we go to war with the hosting country, all they would need to do is switch off the MPESA services and leave the Kenyan masses in financial and social turmoil - without firing a single shot.

Hosting such critical infrastructure locally would offer some comfort from a national security point of view, since government can endeavour to secure such infrastructure better than if it were located abroad.

But forcing the operator to move their content to local servers raises other equally important issues, such as interfering with decisions that are purely under the mandate of the business concern.

The business owners of financial, health, media or other content may prefer to host content abroad for technical, infrastructure or financial reasons.

It is an obvious fact that the cost and reliability of electrical power in Kenya is not comparable to those in developed economies abroad. Content providers may find it cheaper to host abroad as opposed to trying to set-up local data centers that will be frequently subjected to power blackouts, expensive generators or sheer vandalism.

A regulation that forces providers to move data to local servers in such circumstances will therefore encroach on rights of organizations and individuals to make independent business decisions; while simultaneously increasing the cost of doing business.

It remains to be seen how the battle between national security concerns and individual rights will play out in the coming days and months ahead.