Internet Shutdown; A Global Analysis

Defining “Internet Shutdown”

An Internet shutdown is an intentional disruption of Internet-based communications, rendering them inaccessible or effectively unavailable, for a specific population, location, or mode of access, often to exert control over the flow of information.(1)

Internet shutdowns can happen at a national level, where users across the entire country are unable to access the Internet, or at a subnational (local) level, where mobile and/or fixed Internet access in a state, city, or other localized area is cut off.

(For the purposes of this briefing document, application/content blocking should be considered separate and distinct. Please refer to Internet Society Perspectives on Content Blocking: An Overview for additional information on such actions.)

Where are we?

Internet shutdowns started gaining global attention during the Egypt uprising in 2011 when authorities shut down the Internet for nearly a week to disrupt communications of protestors. (2) Since then, the use of Internet shutdowns as a tool for political purposes has steadily risen: according to Access Now, 196 Internet shutdowns were documented in 2018, growing from 106 in 2017 and 75 in 2016. (3)

With 114 shutdowns in 23 countries seen within the first six months of 2019, according to Access Now and the #KeepItOn Coalition, the trend shows no sign of slowing.

While the phenomenon is global, current trends indicate that India and Pakistan lead with the most documented shutdowns, followed by the MENA and Sub-Saharan regions. (4) Of these shutdowns, only a fraction are acknowledged by the government or entity that ordered them.

Technical Impact

When a complete Internet shutdown occurs in a given country, the technical impact can extend beyond the country’s borders to the rest of the global Internet. Being part of an interconnected network means having a responsibility towards the network as a whole, and shutdowns hold the potential to generate systemic risks.

Intentional physical damage to infrastructure, such as cutting fibre optic cables, is probably the most extreme method of implementing an Internet shutdown.

For a number of countries, physical damage to telecommunications cables is particularly problematic because they are transit states. (5) For example, Egypt is in a unique geographic position to be physically crossed by multiple high-capacity cables running from East Asia, along the Indian Ocean, through the Red Sea, and across the Mediterranean to Western Europe.

Several of the lines come ashore at the Suez Canal and run overland through Cairo before entering the Mediterranean at Abu Talat or Alexandria. Because of this, severing fiber optic cables to cut off Egypt’s access to the global Internet would be a dangerous proposition, as it could take down a significant portion of the telecommunications connections between Asia and Western Europe as well.

Economic Impact

Internet shutdowns affect economies in multiple ways, upsetting productivity and generating monetary losses in time-sensitive.

Several studies have determined that there is a real impact of shutdowns on countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP). For example, research by the Brookings Institutions(6) shows that Internet shutdowns cost countries about USD 2.4 billion between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, with maximum losses incurred by India (USD 968 million). According to a report by CIPESA, Sub-Saharan Africa lost up to USD 237 million to Internet shutdowns since 2015 (7). In countries where mobile broadband is increasing, a 2017 Ericsson report found that as mobile broadband penetration increases by 10%, it causes a 0.6-2.8% increase in GDP, meaning that even shutdowns of mobile infrastructure will have an economic impact. (8)

Beyond macro-economic impacts, shutdowns also affect businesses and SMEs in very tangible ways. As an example, in early 2017 a 94-days shutdown affected the Anglophone part of Cameroon – a region also known as “Silicon Mountain”.

Countless stories were reported on local entrepreneurs who lost contracts and couldn’t conduct important transactions, leading to loss of money, business closures and firing of employees (9).

India experiences frequent shutdowns at a state level and states with significant dependence on tourism, including Kashmir, Darjeeling, and Rajasthan saw tourism-related businesses suffer major losses due to Internet shutdowns. The shutdowns limited business-customer communication and prevented customers from accessing booking platforms, leading to reputational damage for hotels. Additionally, the lack of Internet connectivity resulting from shutdowns impacts the ability of small businesses to do outreach and hampers tourists' ability to discover local services and businesses through apps and online platforms. (10)

Human Rights Impact

People routinely depend on the Internet to stay in touch with family and friends, create local communities of interest, report public information, hold institutions accountable, and access and share knowledge. To that end, it can be argued that Internet access cannot be distinguished from the exercise of freedom of expression and opinion and the right to peaceful assembly.

These rights – recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reflected in the Constitution of many of the countries where those shutdowns occur – entrust governments with the responsibility to respect them and protect their citizen’s enjoyment of them. As stated by the UN Human Rights Council in 2012 and reaffirmed since people should enjoy the same protections of these rights whether in online or offline contexts. (11)

As such, Internet shutdowns, in particular, those that disable all means of communications, should be considered as potential Human Rights violations. While rights such as free speech are not absolute and can be restricted on exceptional grounds – such as national security and public order – they also need to follow the three-part test laid out in Article 19(3) of the ICCPR, including meeting proportionality and necessity criteria. (12)

In recent years, the Human Rights community has stepped up its efforts to address the impact of Internet shutdowns to these rights. The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression has voiced concerns at the disproportionate impact of Internet shutdowns on people’s right to expression.

A Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution, adopted by consensus in 2016, stated that it “condemns unequivocally measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online in violation of international human rights law ”.(13) A number of Internet Society partners are also dedicating significant resources to tracking Internet shutdowns occurring around the world, publishing detailed research on the impact of such shutdowns on human rights, including Freedom on the Net 2018:

The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism (Freedom House), Disconnected: A Human Rights-Based Approach to Network Disruptions (Global Network Initiative), and The State of Internet Shutdowns Around The World: The 2018 #KeepItOn Report (Access Now). (14)

India and internet shutdown

The irony of the situation caused a lot of comment, especially as it came alongside news that India is the world leader in internet shutdowns. The internet has been shut down 95 times in India so far this year, according to the Internet Shutdown Tracker, a portal that tracks such incidents across the country.

Authorities usually order internet providers to suspend services, citing public order reasons. Under Indian laws, the government can direct telecom companies to shut down services or take down sites, among other things.

The protests against the citizenship law saw the internet not only blocked in Assam but also in some districts in West Bengal state as well as in the northern city of Aligarh in the last few weeks alone. On Thursday some parts of the capital Delhi joined the list. With protests showing little signs of abating, there is every chance the number of shutdowns could increase before the end of the year. But the shutdowns of the last few weeks have at least been temporary.

Officials have said that it is necessary to "keep the peace" in the region, which was recently stripped of its semi-autonomous status, divided into two federally-governed territories and saw many of its political leaders detained.

[The author, Srishti Sharma is a second-year law student at IIMT School of Law, Karkardooma, affiliated to the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi.]

1. www.accessnow.org/keepiton/
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/afregypt-shut-down-the-internet.html
3. http://www.accessnow.org/the-state-of-internet-shutdowns-in-2018/
4. http://www.accessnow.org/cms/assets/uploads/report-final.pdf
5. http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5228/4204
6. https:/www.brookings.edu/wpcontent/upload/2016/10/internet-shutdowns-v-3.pdf
7. https://cipesa.org/2017/09/economicimpact-of-internet-disruptions-in-sub-saharan-africa/
8. https://www.ericsson.com/en/news/2017/9/mobile broadband-boosts-the-economy.
9. http:www.nasdag.com/article/African-rulers-weapon-against-webbased-dissent-the-off-switch-20171017-00062
10. http://unctad.org/en/publications library
11. http://tinyurl.com/y7aonaw5
12. http://www.article19.org/pages/en/limitations.html
13. UN human rights council resolution A/HRC/32/L.20,JULY 2016
14. https://www. accessnow.org/cms/assets/uploads/report-final.pdf