FAQ

The global Internet is comprised of independent networks that connect to one another. Its distributed nature makes measuring any aspect of the Internet on a global scale difficult. There are many people, projects and organizations that are collecting data on various facets of the Internet, but there’s no single site that provides a curated set of insights. So, to help everyone gain deeper, data-driven insight into the Internet, we’ve built Internet Society Pulse as a way to collate some of the key information about the health, availability and evolution of the Internet. Find out more here.

Where does the Internet Society get the data that is presented on Internet Society Pulse?

The majority of our data comes from several trusted third-party organizations. Please see the Data Partners section for more information on the data curated by the Internet Society Pulse platform and the organizations that collect it. In addition to this third-party data, we perform some measurements ourselves, which enables us to present data on technology adoption trends on the web (Topsites measurements for IPv6, TLS1.3, HTTPS).

How does Internet Society Pulse define Internet shutdowns?

We use AccessNow’s definition of Internet shutdowns to guide our work:

“An Internet shutdown is 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.”

For the purposes of Internet Society Pulse, regional and national scale disruptions to Internet connectivity are included in this definition, as well as application-level blocking and content blocking, where Internet connectivity remains available but access to certain websites or applications is limited.

To ensure that we only report actual, deliberate and mandated disruptions, the Pulse platform team keeps a close eye on Internet traffic patterns from multiple trusted sources. If our data sources indicate that a shutdown is deliberate, we cross check to see if there are media reports from reputable sources or orders issued by authorities to Internet Service Providers (ISPs). If we can verify that the disruption is intentional, we will add an entry to the Pulse Shutdowns Tracker.

For a shutdown to appear on the Pulse Shutdowns Tracker it needs to meet all of the following requirements. It must:

Be artificially induced, as evident from reputable sources, including government statements and orders.
Remove Internet access.
Affect access to a group of people.

You can find out more about how we track Internet shutdowns in this blog post.

I believe an Internet shutdown occurred but it isn’t included in your list of Internet shutdown events. Why not?

We make every effort to ensure that the data compiled on Internet shutdowns is as complete as possible. However, given the challenges associated with detecting and confirming the occurrence of Internet shutdowns, some events may be missed. For shutdown events that you believe should be included on Internet Society Pulse, please ensure that the outage meets the criteria outlined above. You can contact us at [email protected], including the following information:

The impacted area/region
Start and end date/time
Impacted services (if applicable)
Links to any supporting documentation (published articles, government statements, measurement graphs, etc.)

We will review all submissions, but cannot guarantee that they will be included in the Internet Society Pulse database.

I’m experiencing a government-mandated Internet shutdown. Can I tell you about my experience?

Absolutely. We are always interested to hear about how your daily life has been affected by a government-mandated Internet shutdown. Please get in touch with us at [email protected] to tell us more.

Where can I find more information about Internet Shutdowns?

The Internet Society has also published a white paper that provides an overview of content blocking techniques.

What is the Internet Society Pulse NetLoss Calculator?

The NetLoss calculator is a tool that allows everyone to estimate:

The amount of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) lost during a shutdown.
The change in unemployment due to a shutdown.
The amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) lost due to a shutdown.
Risk of a shutdown: the probability that a country will experience a shutdown

The calculator gives estimates for shutdowns that have already happened, as well as for anticipated shutdowns.

Why is it important to understand the economic impact of Internet shutdowns?

Any disruption to the Internet, no matter it’s duration, has a detrimental effect on the economy. Internet shutdowns disrupt productivity, prevent e-commerce from happening, generate monetary losses in time-sensitive transactions, and increase unemployment. SMEs and entrepreneurs are impacted too, with business-customer communication interrupted and customers unable to access services and products. Internet shutdowns raise financial and reputation risks for ICT companies and their investors, the secondary economic impacts resulting from a climate of uncertainty can also potentially discourage foreign investors who will be wary about investing in a country that does not provide stable Internet connectivity. By attaching an estimated cost to an Internet shutdown, policymakers can see the devastating impact such disruptions have on their country’s economy and choose alternative courses of action.

Why did the Internet Society develop the NetLoss calculator?

The Internet Society developed the NetLoss calculator to provide everyone with a way to estimate the economic impact of an Internet shutdown. By understanding the devastating effect of such disruptions on a country’s economy, policymakers can choose alternative courses of action and citizens can advocate for stable connectivity in their country.

What is the methodology behind the NetLoss calculator?

The Internet Society Pulse NetLoss calculator is based on an econometric framework that takes into account the factors associated with an Internet shutdown and its duration, and estimates its impact on broad macroeconomic variables such as the Gross Domestic Product (in Purchasing Power Parity, or PPP terms in current prices), Foreign Direct Investment (or FDI), and Unemployment (change in unemployment as indicated by the unemployment rate). See the detailed methodology for the estimation.

How is the NetLoss calculator different to similar estimation tools?

In addition to the estimated cost of an Internet shutdown (i.e. the loss in GDP), the Internet Society NetLoss calculator also estimates:

The change in the unemployment rate due to a shutdown.
The amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) lost due to a shutdown.
Risk of a shutdown: the probability that a country will experience a shutdown

Further, the econometric methodology behind the calculator is based on publicly available data to promote transparency and reproducibility. Details of the methodology are also publicly available.

How often is the data used in the Internet Society NetLoss calculator refreshed?

Data used in the Internet Society NetLoss calculator will be refreshed quarterly as the primary data on economic indicators is used at an annual level. The source of the data is the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, which typically corrects for minor statistical changes.

Why does the NetLoss calculator not provide estimates for some countries/territories?

There are some countries/territories for which there is not enough data available. As a result, we cannot compute the economic cost of Internet shutdowns in these countries at this time. If and when data becomes available for these countries/territories, we will add it to the NetLoss calculator database. Currently, the following countries do not have enough data for us to estimate the impact of a shutdown: Anguilla (AIA), Andorra (AND), American Samoa (ASM), Antartica (ATA), Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba (BES), Saint Barthelemy (BLM), Cook Islands (COK), Christmas Island (CXR), Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas – FLK), Faroe Islands (FRO), Guernsey (GGY), Gibraltar (GIB), Guadeloupe (GLP), Greenland (GRL), French Guiana (GUF), Isle of Man (IMN), Jersey (JEY), Liechtenstein (LIE), Saint Martin (MAF), Monaco (MCO), Northern Mariana Islands (MNP), Monserrat (MSR), Martinique (MTQ), Mayotte (MYT), Reunion (REU), Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (SHN), San Marino (SMR), Taiwan (TWA), Vatican (VAT), Wallis and Futuna (WLF).

What does shutdown risk mean and how does the NetLoss calculator estimate it?

For each country and for every year (where data is available), the Internet Society Pulse NetLoss calculator estimates a shutdown risk. The shutdown risk is the likelihood of a country facing an Internet shutdown in a particular year from the beginning of that year, and is expressed in percentage terms, ranging between 0 to 100.

Does a country’s shutdown risk change over time on the NetLoss calculator?

The shutdown risk for each country is based on calculations using data available for that year. Data is currently not complete for 2022 and 2023, and the shutdown risk is estimated on the basis of the most recently available data (i.e., 2021). For example, the shutdown risk in India is estimated to be 16.28% for 2023, and this estimate is based on the shutdown risk estimated for 2021, as that is the year where the data for India is available.

Can the NetLoss calculator calculate the economic cost of regional Internet shutdowns?

The NetLoss calculator methodology currently does not distinguish between national and regional shutdowns as the underlying indicators used are nationwide. The NetLoss calculator should be used with caution when estimating the economic impact of shutdowns in countries that frequently disrupt Internet access to the Internet at a regional level, such as India.

I am a journalist. Could you provide access to a subject matter expert to talk to me about the NetLoss calculator and Internet shutdowns?

Yes. Internet Society Pulse can provide subject matter experts on a variety of topics related to the health, availability and evolution of the Internet, including Internet shutdowns and the NetLoss calculator, Internet resilience, market concentration, enabling technologies, and Internet measurements in general. Please direct all media enquiries to Allesandra de Santillana at [email protected]. You can also find the NetLoss calculator press kit here.

How does the global IRI differ from the MIRA IRI?

Besides covering more countries (176 instead of 54 previously), there are some notable additions and deductions with regard to the indicators. We’ve added the following indicators,

Fixed and Mobile Jitter (Source: Ookla): The metric provides the average fluctuation observed when measuring latency for both fixed and mobile connections.
Upstream redundancy: Refers to the average number of upstream providers for all networks in a given country. Having multiple upstream providers increase the resiliency of a network.

And we’ve had to remove the following indicators as the sources have discontinued collecting data on them or the data is not available for more than 75% of countries:

Electricity: Quality of power supply.
Spam infections: The % of networks in spam block lists.
Exit points: The number of International gateways (physical) of a country.

Why can’t I see my country/province/territory’s IRI score?

IRI scores are calculated using more than 25 data indicators sourced from more than 17 open-data sources. We’ve selected data indicators and sources based on their relevance, accuracy, freshness, continuity, and coverage. In terms of the later while many sources do cover every region there are some that don’t. In these instances the data shows zero. For the following regions the IRI score was impacted by too many zero results that it was felt it did not provide an accurate indication of the overall resilience of these country’s Internet. As we refine the IRI we hope to find new sources that will provide missing data for these countries. If you are interested in knowing what the IRI score is for these countries please email us [email protected]

Countries missing from the IRI:
Aland Islands, American Samoa, Anguilla, Antarctica, Aruba, Bermuda, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Faroe Islands, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gibraltar, Greenland, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Heard and Mcdonald Islands, Holy See (Vatican City State), Hong Kong, SAR China, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kiribati, Korea (North), Macao, SAR China, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Pitcairn, Puerto Rico, Réunion, Saint Helena, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin (French part), Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Solomon Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, US Minor Outlying Islands, Virgin Islands (US), Wallis and Futuna Islands, Western Sahara

How does Internet Society Pulse define the top 1000 websites?

We use data provided by the Chrome User Experience Report. The Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) provides user experience metrics for how real-world Chrome users experience popular destinations on the web. Research has shown that, “Using a set of metrics from Cloudflare that estimate page loads and unique visitors, we find Google Chrome’s recently released CrUX dataset captures the unordered set of most popular websites significantly more accurately than other top lists, with correlations inline with the differences we see amongst multiple measures of popularity derived from the same Cloudflare data.”

What is IPv6 and where can I find more information about it?

IPv6 is the latest version of the fundamental technology (Internet Protocol) that powers the Internet. The previous version, IPv4, is still in operation on many networks around the world but it can only support an Internet of a few billion devices. By contrast, IPv6 can support an Internet of billions of billions of devices and can provide enough address space to meet the needs of the growing Internet for decades to come. Simply put, the Internet has outgrown its original design and IPv6 is the solution. You can find out more about IPv6 and how it will enable the expansion of the Internet well into the future here.

What are TLS and TLS 1.3 and where can I find more information about them?

Transport Layer Security (TLS ) encrypts data sent over the Internet to ensure that eavesdroppers are unable to see what you transmit. This is particularly useful for private and sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers, and personal correspondence. You can find out more about TLS here.

TLS 1.3 is the newest version of the TLS cryptographic protocol designed to protect Internet communications. TLS 1.3 was defined in an IETF RFC in August 2018. TLS 1.3 updates the most important security protocol on the Internet, delivering superior privacy, security, and performance. You can find out more about TLS 1.3 here.

What is the DNS and where can I find more information about it?

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. The DNS translates easy-to-remember domain names (internetsociety.org) to the numerical IP addresses (2001:41c8:20::b31a) needed for the purpose of locating computer services and devices worldwide. Find out more information about DNS here.

What is DNSSEC and where can I find more information about it?

Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is a suite of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) specifications for securing certain kinds of information provided by the Domain Name System (DNS) as used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It is a set of extensions to DNS which provide, to DNS clients (resolvers), origin authentication of DNS data, authenticated denial of existence, and data integrity, but not availability or confidentiality. Find out more about DNSSEC here.

What is HTTPS and HTTP/3 and where can I find more information about them?

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), is an application protocol that serves as the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, where hypertext documents include hyperlinks to other resources that web users can easily access.

HTTP/3 is the latest revision of HTTP. HTTP/3 uses the new QUIC transport protocol to improve the security and performance of web communication and to reduce the latency of connection establishment. HTTP/3 builds on the header compression and server push developments of HTTP/2.

HTTPS is a security-focused extension of HTTP. The communication protocol is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS). HTTPS protects against man-in-the-middle attacks and eavesdropping on HTTP communications. It also protects against data being tampered with while in transit.

What is QUIC and where can I find more information about it?

QUIC is a general-purpose transport layer protocol which was first implemented, and deployed by Google in 2012. It was announced publicly in 2013 as experimentation broadened. Although still working its way through the standardization process at the IETF, QUIC is already widely in use on the Internet. Find out more here.

I/My organization has data/is conducting measurements that might be a good fit for Internet Society Pulse. Who can I talk to about it?

Please contact the Internet Society Pulse team at [email protected] to discuss your data/measurements.

Can I write a guest blog post?

We actively encourage the community to submit ideas for blog posts that use the data presented on Internet Society Pulse to tell data-driven stories about the health, availability and evolution of the Internet. We also encourage blog posts about any of the focus areas and technologies that are presented on the platform, such as Internet Shutdowns, IPv6, TLS 1.3, DNSSEC etc. Please get in touch with us at [email protected] for more information.

Can I republish an Internet Society Pulse blog post on my own blog/website?

Yes, as long as it is attributed to the correct author and contains a link back to the original post on Internet Society Pulse. Please get in touch with us at [email protected] for more information.

Yes. Unless otherwise indicated, the text, images and charts on this site are yours to use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. We ask that you link back to the Internet Society Pulse website directly to the page on which you found the original content. If sharing on Twitter, please tag our Twitter handle, @ISOC_Pulse, in your tweets.

Can I use the data/charts published on Internet Society Pulse in my research or personal projects?

Who can I contact for more information about Internet Society Pulse?

You can get in touch with us via email to [email protected]. If you would like to interview an Internet Society Pulse subject matter expert, please direct all media enquiries to Allesandra de Santillana at [email protected].

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