{"id":921,"date":"2022-09-20T16:46:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T15:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediadefence.org\/ereader\/?post_type=publication&p=921"},"modified":"2022-09-22T11:38:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T10:38:00","slug":"what-is-an-internet-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/www.mediadefence.org\/ereader\/publications\/modules-on-litigating-freedom-of-expression-and-digital-rights-in-south-and-southeast-asia\/module-3-access-to-the-internet\/what-is-an-internet-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an Internet Shutdown?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An internet shutdown may be defined as an intentional disruption of internet or electronic communications, rendering them inaccessible or effectively unusable, for a specific population or within a location, often to exert control over the flow of information.[footnote]Access Now, \u2018What is an internet shutdown?\u2019 (accessible at: https:\/\/www.accessnow.org\/keepiton\/?ignorelocale<\/a>).[\/footnote] In other words, this arises when someone, be it the government or a private sector actor, intentionally disrupts the internet, a telecommunications network or an internet service, arguably to control or curb what people say or do.[footnote]Id<\/em>.[\/footnote]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some instances, this may entail there being a total network outage, whereby access to the internet is shutdown in its entirety.  This is sometimes also referred to as a \u2018kill switch\u2019. In other circumstances, this may also arise when access to mobile communications, websites or social media and messaging applications is blocked, throttled or rendered effectively unusable.[footnote]Report of the UNSR on Freedom of Expression to the UNGA, A\/HRC\/35\/22, 30 March 2017 (2017 Report of the UNSR on freedom of expression) at para 8 (accessible at: https:\/\/documents-dds-ny.un.org\/doc\/UNDOC\/GEN\/G17\/077\/46\/PDF\/G1707746.pdf?OpenElement<\/a>).[\/footnote] Shutdowns may affect an entire country, towns or regions within a country, or even multiple countries, and have been seen to range from several hours to several months.[footnote]Id<\/em>.[\/footnote]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be noted that in order to conduct shutdowns governments typically require cooperation from private actors that operate networks or facilitate network traffic.[footnote]Id<\/em>.[\/footnote] As noted by the United Nations Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on freedom of expression, large-scale attacks on network infrastructure committed by private parties, such as distributed denial-of-service (known as \u2018DDoS\u2019) attacks, may also have shutdown effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An internet shutdown may be defined as an intentional disruption of internet or electronic communications, rendering them inaccessible or effectively unusable, for a specific population or within a location, often to exert control over the flow of information.[footnote]Access Now, \u2018What is an internet shutdown?\u2019 (accessible at: https:\/\/www.accessnow.org\/keepiton\/?ignorelocale).[\/footnote] In other words, this arises when someone, be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":916,"menu_order":54,"template":"page-templates\/chapter.php","publication-category":[],"class_list":["post-921","publication","type-publication","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is an Internet Shutdown? | eReader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediadefence.org\/ereader\/publications\/modules-on-litigating-freedom-of-expression-and-digital-rights-in-south-and-southeast-asia\/module-3-access-to-the-internet\/what-is-an-internet-shutdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is an Internet Shutdown? 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