Internet Shutdowns

The Karnataka government has suspended mobile internet services in Dakshina Kannada district on Thursday night for the next 48 hours after two persons were killed in police firing during violent protests in Mangaluru against the controversial citizenship law. The decision to suspend internet from 10pm was taken in order to prevent misuse of social media platforms to disturb peace and tranquillity, and for maintaining law-and-order situation, according to a notification.

A protest against the amended Citizenship Act turned violent in Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh, with police using mild force to disperse the agitators who hurled stones at them, prompting authorities to suspend internet services for 48 hours, officials said on Wednesday

In Meerut, the internet services will be unavailable till noon today, unless further orders are issued. Meerut District Magistrate Anil Dhingra told ANI that internet services have been suspended in the district from 12 pm of December 15 to 12 pm of December 16 in view of law and order maintenance. In Aligarh, Internet was suspended from 15th December, 10PM to 16th December 10PM

Internet has been shutdown in Aligarh till 5PM on 13th December 2019 because of protests regarding the Citizenship amendment bill.

Internet has been shutdown in Aligarh till 5PM on 13th December 2019 because of protests regarding the Citizenship amendment bill.

Mobile internet services have been suspended across Meghalaya for the next 48 hours, officials said. The development comes in the wake of the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament. CVD Diengdoh, additional secretary to the government of Meghalaya (home police) department on Thursday said that mobile Internet and messaging were suspended for 48 hours from 5pm on Thursday in entire Meghalaya to prevent potential threat to public safety through SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

After the passing of Citizenship(Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha, mass protests have been taking place in Tripura. Additional secretary to the Government of Tripura has prohibited SMS services as well as Mobile Internet for a period of 48 hours starting from 2PM on 10th December 2019.

After the passing of Citizenship(Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha, mass protests have been taking place in Tripura. Additional secretary to the Government of Tripura has prohibited SMS services as well as Mobile Internet for a period of 48 hours starting from 2PM on 10th December 2019.

On November 16, 2019, the Iranian government shut down the Internet following deadly protests over fuel price hikes. The five-day blackout derailed daily life, and resulted in widespread disruption of online services, rendering access to healthcare and online education sources unavailable for millions of citizens. While Iranians are no strangers to shutdowns, this one was different to previous incidents, and far more sophistocated. Rather than throttling (slowing of connectivity) and blocking access to certain websites, services and apps, the entire country was taken completely offline, making it difficult use circumvention techniques. "Iran’s ability to shutdown the Internet is the culmination of policies, technological developments and centralised control", says Mahsa Alimardani, one of the authors of the Article19 research and an academic at the Oxford Internet Institute. “A lot of the incentive to shut down the Internet was to shut down communication channels that were seen to be facilitating a lot of this mobilisation,” Alimardani says (source: Wired). Internet shutdowns during protests or civil unrest impact the ability of citizens to get accurate information from government sources when they need it most. It also becomes harder for citizens to contact family members and friends in other parts of the country, or in other countries.