India is widely considered to be the world’s largest democracy, yet it also holds the dubious distinction of having the highest number of Internet shutdowns worldwide. In 2020 alone, 109 shutdowns occurred in the country. By contrast, the nation with the second highest number of shutdowns (Yemen), had only six. The Indian government typically justifies these […]
Responding directly to a request for easy to share information about circumvention tools during a shutdown, Localization Lab has created short animations in 4 local languages and a video overviewing how to download and use a VPN when one is no longer able to use messaging applications or access content online. Localization Lab has also […]
This blog post was originally authored by Ali Sibai and posted on the SMEX website. It is reposted here with permission. In recent years, internet outages in Syria have become a familiar, dystopian tradition during the Official High School Exams. The Syrian government has unplugged the internet during exams every year since 2016, plunging the country […]
This article was originally published on the Internet Society’s blog. With protests intensifying and social media interruptions reported in the weeks leading up to Benin’s presidential elections on 11 April 2021, many Internet and civil rights organizations were growing nervous about the potential for another Internet shutdown. Internet access was cut for almost 24 hours […]
Internet shutdowns harm societies, economies and the global Internet infrastructure – that’s why we’re tracking disruptions on the Internet Society Pulse platform. There are thousands of disruptions to Internet access every day all over the world, but not all of them are the result of deliberate shutdowns. Lengthy outages are usually the result of technical errors, […]
Several governments around the world turn to limiting or shutting down access to the Internet as an easy solution to quell potential local problems. In the past few years, we’ve noticed that Internet shutdowns occur around periods of local unrest, elections, or national school/university exams. We have also noticed that shutdowns rarely serve their purpose […]
Note: This blog post originally appeared on the Internet Society Benin Chapter’s website here, in French. It has been translated and re-posted here with the permission of the Benin Chapter. Internet shutdowns are rife today. The reasons often mentioned are the following: to prevent the spread of social unrest, to fight against the dissemination of […]
This article was first published on the Internet Society blog. The Indian government’s recent Internet shutdown during farmer protests impacted over 50 million residents. It is a stark warning of the danger of tampering with the foundations that make the Internet work for everyone. Internet shutdowns are a dangerous tactic increasingly used by the state to quell situations […]
This article was first published in Coindesk on 4 February 2021 by Sandali Handagama. (c) Sandali Handagama / Coindesk. Internet disruptions are costly, but that doesn’t stop governments from shutting down access. The new military government in Myanmar has reportedly ordered telecommunications companies to temporarily block access to Facebook citing the platform is a threat to the […]
