"Access Now and the #KeepItOn Coalition documented at least 155 internet shutdown1 incidents around the world in 29 countries. When compared to 2018 and 2019, this is a lower number of shutdowns. However, the smaller number of shutdowns is not an indication of the lessened impact of a shutdown or an
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overall increase in digital rights. For a world that was and continues to be under lockdown or at least some forms of movement restriction, 155 intentional communication disruptions came at a high cost to the fundamental human rights of people around the world. Countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Yemen, Ethiopia, and others entrenched the use of shutdowns even during the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, Ethiopia’s national internet blackout affected more than 100 million people for more than two weeks during the height of the pandemic in the country. Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh implored the government of Bangladesh to turn on the internet as COVID-19 spread through the refugee camps, but they were ignored. In 2019 and 2020, Myanmar perpetrated one of the world’s longest internet shutdowns, affecting some of the world’s most vulnerable people. The Burmese government proceeded to expand mobile internet throttling across the nine townships in Rakhine and Chin states even as the pandemic spread, restricting residents of these townships from access to critical and life-saving information." (Pages 2-3)
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"This handbook explains how internet shutdowns undermine democractic elections and provides tips and recommendations for key actors to navigate shutdowns and understand and assess the extent to which an election taking place under a shutdown is free and fair. It is aimed at election observers, peopl
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e on diplomatic missions, journalists, and human rights activists in particular." (Introduction)
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"Between 2016 and 2021, 68 shutdowns have been documented in 29 African countries. This demonstrates that government-mandated internet disruptions are an established norm in the region, despite very little scientific or social evidence demonstrating their effectiveness. A number of pointers and fact
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ors signal the likelihood of an internet shutdown occurring. These include jurisdictions with authoritarian regimes, the duration of a president’s term in office, facilitating laws and policies, protests, national exams, and the election season. In practice, shutdowns are typically ordered by the executive arm of government and implemented by private actors, namely telecom operators and internet service providers (ISPs). Six primary methods are used to implement full and partial shutdowns, including throttling, IP blocking, mobile data shutoffs, domain name system (DNS) interference, server name identification blocking, and deep packet inspection (DPI)." (Executive summary)
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"The Internet Shutdown policy implemented at Papua and West Papua in 2019 has created a competing narrative between the government and the civil society. The main narration championed to justify the Internet Shutdown by the government is the concern of the national security whereas the civil society
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argues that Internet Shutdown is a form of human rights violation. These competing narratives brought forth a new sort of dynamics in a polemic surrounding a policy. This paper aims to discuss the dynamics between people and state where cyber power plays a huge role within the context of the polemic surrounding Internet Shutdown policy in Papua and West Papua. Data is gathered through interviews with stakeholders and various media content relating to the issue analyzed qualitatively. Results find that the interaction between people, state, and cyber power in the Internet Shutdown policy paints a dynamic picture involving repression, delegations of cyber power, and the future where Indonesia is heading into a paradox where it exists as a democratic country being under a digital authoritarianism regime." (Abstract)
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"Asia Centre’s Briefing Note, Myanmar Coup and Internet Shutdowns, tracks the period 1 February to 31 March 2021. The Note provides a timeline of the shutdowns, reactions from protestors, technology companies and the international community, legal analysis of key laws and Myanmar’s international
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obligations. Over the course of the coup, it records a shift in tactics by the military junta from internet content censorship to internet infrastructure control." (Page 1)
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"Among the various forms of online censorship, internet shutdowns are some of the most invasive and blunt. Unlike traditional forms of censorship like blocking internet pages or certain content, these disruptions to digital communications are architectural and affect a preliminary condition in the i
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nformation society: access to the internet. While many conversations on the impact of network disruptions on human rights tend to centre around civil and political rights, the disruptions also have a profound impact on socio-economic rights, such as the right to education, housing, health, and even social security [...] The best experience that can be replicated elsewhere is the legal action that was backed by civil society organisations and lawyers against mobile operators and governments over internet shut down in January 2019 in Zimbabwe. The shutdown caused loss of business and income and threats to life, according to the suit filed by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the Zimbabwe unit of the Media Institute of Southern Africa. The legal action was directed at the three mobile networks operating in the country, including Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Ltd, as well as President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the national security minister and the head of the intelligence services. The state security minister ordered service providers to switch off the internet after a wave of violent anti-government demonstrations in the country. In this case the high court decided that “the minister had no authority to make that order.” Redress at a regional level is another avenue that should be explored as encouraging moves are seen at least from courts that are under the regional economic communities (RECs). In 2019, Access Now together with other eight organisations, submitted a brief to Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), arguing that the shutdown in Togo was inconsistent with regional and international frameworks and violated the fundamental human rights of the Togolese people. The ECOWAS court ruled that the blackouts in Togo were illegal." (Pages 2-5)
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"The OPTIMA workflow is a compilation of new and existing resources, guides, methodologies, and more to assist individuals and activists before, during and after an Internet shutdown. The following repository is organized into four categories:
ADVOCACY RESOURCES. Designing effective advocacy campaig
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ns around Internet shutdowns can be challenging. This section provides guidance and examples to support you in building impactful messaging and getting the word out even during a crisis.
CIRCUMVENTION RESOURCES. Understanding how to continue your work and maintain communications can be a daunting task. This section outlines some of the tools that you can use, and guides to help you determine which is best for your specific needs.
LITIGATION RESOURCES. Sometimes the most effective way to challenge or prevent a shutdown is to do so through the courts. This section includes resources, strategies, and legal landscape reviews to help you build and argue strong litigation.
NETWORK MEASUREMENT RESOURCES. A key element to fighting against shutdowns is understanding when and how they happen in your country. Network Measurement is a critical tool to reinforce advocacy with data." (Publisher description)
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"China's 'Great Firewall' has evolved into the most sophisticated system of online censorship in the world. As the Chinese internet grows and online businesses thrive, speech is controlled, dissent quashed, and attempts to organise outside the official Communist Party are quickly stamped out. Update
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d throughout and available in paperback for the first time, The Great Firewall of China draws on James Griffiths' unprecedented access to the Great Firewall and the politicians, tech leaders, dissidents and hackers whose lives revolve around it. New chapters cover the suppression of information about the first outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, disinformation campaigns in response to the exposure of the persecution of Uyghur communities in Xinjiang and the crackdown against the Umbrella movement in Hong Kong." (Publisher description)
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"An increasing number of governments around the world are forcing internet service providers to slow their services during critical sociopolitical junctures—a practice known as throttling—infringing on citizens’ right to information and freedom of expression. Despite its deleterious impact on
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media development and foundational rights, throttling remains an often-neglected topic and risks becoming a pervasive, yet hidden, threat to press freedoms, democracy, and human rights. Throttling refers to the intentional slowing of an internet service by an internet service provider. It stifles the free flow of information during critical moments and prevents journalists from providing vital information to citizens abroad and at home. Due to its difficulty to detect, throttling shields authorities from public scrutiny. Businesses have a duty to be transparent about how and when governments force them to disrupt their services, yet often remain silent on the issue." (Key findings)
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"In November 2019, protests broke out across Iran over a fuel price hike; authorities responded with violence and repression. They also disconnected millions of Iranians from the Internet. Iran’s November shutdowns were unprecedented in length and reach. On a vast scale, they cut people off from v
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ital information and from each other. Authorities subjected protesters to violent assaults without the exposure that access to the Internet enables. The ability to conduct these shutdowns is the culmination of many policies, technological developments, and systems of centralised control that permeate Iran’s system, and especially its Internet governance. This report takes a close look at the Internet shutdowns that accompanied the protest period from 15 November to 27 November, as well as the mechanisms, infrastructure, law, and policies that enabled this kind of disconnection. It then looks at the aftermath of the protests and the outlook for Internet governance and connectivity in Iran." (Executive summary)
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"This report and the associated workbook seeks to contribute to the discourse in three ways. First, we hope to open an extensible documentation and overview of practices, experiences, and resources on the legitimisation of, and resistance to, state-backed internet shutdowns across the world. Second,
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we seek to enable and advance a collective understanding of emerging legal and jurisprudential frameworks being used to legitimise and resist internet shutdowns. Free and open access to such data would help human rights lawyers and civil society advocates to locate relevant jurisprudence and accordingly tailor strategies." (About this report, page 6)
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"Internet shutdowns are on the rise. In the past few years, an escalation of this blunt censoring practice has affected different regions of the world, particularly Africa and Asia. Scholars and advocates have proposed no substantive solutions to effectively address Internet shutdowns, and analysis
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has largely been limited to examining the negative effects through data about their frequency, duration, and economic costs. This article attempts to move beyond the polarized debate between “keep it on” and “shut it off” to explore how there can be more transparency around decision-making processes behind Internet shutdowns. We also discuss the limits of law when it comes to the imposition and implementation of shutdowns. Shutdowns tend to be imposed somewhat arbitrarily with little process. Bringing back legal arguments into the exploration of the justifications around shutdowns may make the use of shutdowns less frequent and more limited, when they do occur." (Abstract)
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"This article explores the prevailing ways Internet shutdowns are currently understood and makes the case for a new conceptualization—one that recognizes the inherent diversity of cases and how and why they are employed. To do so, we focus on Internet shutdowns in Africa, drawing on data collected
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during our ongoing research into the politics and practice of social media and conflict in Africa. Though Africa is not the only continent on which Internet shutdowns are taking place, it provides a landscape where the presence of various alternative versions of shutdowns produces important reactions and policy outcomes. A spectrum approach allows for more nuanced conceptualization rather than thinking of shutdowns as a homogeneous technique. This recognizes the variations—both subtle and extreme—among different aspects of Internet shutdowns, including their frequency, duration, breadth, depth, and speed. It also helps to situate this practice more clearly within the wider landscape of other approaches to censorship and offers indications as to how Internet shutdowns might evolve in the future." (Abstract)
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