Happy Nice Mall

Whenever you see a government – ​​or a group as in the case of the Taliban – expressing autocratic, authoritarian and oppressive views, they can do what they say they want to do, which is to restrict access to information and communication. I am very concerned about the situation in Afghanistan. It is very important to make sure that people there have access to information, the ability to communicate, and the ability to receive news.

How sophisticated does one need to be to enforce one of these shutdowns? Can anyone with meaningful control over the Internet infrastructure participate in these activities?

You’re right in pointing out that the way shutdowns occur often has to do with how much control a government has over the telecommunications infrastructure in a given country. And that changes: it varies from country to country and changes over time.

One of the things we’ve observed, and has been well reported by others, is that some governments are considering legislation to increase their control over telecommunications infrastructure. This is part of three simultaneous trends. First, you have the increased frequency of internet shutdowns. Second, you have a growing interest in how governments control the telecommunications infrastructure in their countries. You also see a worldwide stagnation of democracy and an increase in autocratic governments exerting power over civil society.

What is the real risk?

Definitely more of an inconvenience. In some cases it is a matter of life and death. It’s strictly a livelihood issue – restricting civil society, restricting access to information and curbing freedom of expression. I think as more people live their lives online and democratic institutions increasingly rely on the internet as a way to facilitate civic participation—for sharing news and information, for people to communicate with one another, and for people to organize—a government shutting down the internet carries increasing costs.

Global deliberate internet shutdowns

January 2020 – May 2021

What can an average internet user do about it? What can we do to better recognize when it happens and prevent it?

It depends a lot on your circumstances. For example, there are a number of tools that can allow you to access the free and open internet, such as virtual private networks (VPNs). There are certain tools that allow you to protect yourself from certain types of censorship. DNS poisoning is a common form of censorship where a government manipulates individual URLs. We have a tool (and there are others) called Intra that protects users and allows them to circumvent these restrictions.