Unlike the Golestan case, AFRINIC's dispute with Cloud Innovation is based purely on a policy dispute. However, given AFRINIC's overreaching claims and attempts to interfere with justice through foreign powers, there currently are multiple criminal allegations filed against the now-suspended AFRINIC CEO, Eddy Kayihura, for breach of data protection act, criminal contempt of court, criminal defamation (he asked the NRO to send a letter to the Mauritian government claiming that Cloud Innovation is a vexatious litigant), and interference with justice. Indeed, in the litigation involving Cloud Innovation, the Judge has instead found that Cloud Innovation is not a vexatious litigant, but instead, AFRINIC is trying to block justice. Eddy Kayihura has been questioned multiple times by the Mauritian police, and the police's investigation into his criminal conduct is ongoing.
Mauritius plays an essential role in the governance of the global internet and hosts AFRINIC - the regional internet registry for Africa. This private company is tasked with ensuring fair access to the billions of internet users. AFRINIC is governed by its membership, and the membership as a collective was proud to select Mauritius as its base of operations, grounded on the strong principles of democracy, freedom of speech, and the rule of law. Over the last few years, AFRINIC has been subject to allegations of poor governance and corruption. The members' concerns have been so serious that at least eight different parties have brought legal cases to the courts in Mauritius.
Cloud Innovation provides a global IP address management service. Its customers include some of the world's leading telecoms, and across 60 countries, including many AFRICAN countries. These customers (telecoms) are serving millions of websites and hundreds of millions of end-users worldwide by using the IP addresses provided by Cloud Innovation. Over the course of the past year, AFRINIC has made a number of claims against Cloud Innovation that includes (most worrying of all) demanding that Cloud Innovation monitor hundreds of millions of end users and threatening to terminate the internet connectivity of those end users if Cloud Innovation refused.
AFRINIC's behaviour has forced Cloud Innovation to fight for the rights of end users in the courts in Mauritius. Cloud Innovation believes in a bottom-up, community-driven approach to internet governance. Cloud Innovation strongly opposes overreaching claims made by community-based private companies such as Regional Internet Registries like AFRINIC. We believe that Regional Internet Registries are bookkeepers. They should not possess the power of nations and decide who has the right to access the internet solely based on their discretion and monopolistic power.
Cloud Innovation will keep fighting to protect the rights of hundreds of millions of end users that it serves and including those in Africa.
Management of Cloud Innovation