internet shutdowns
There is a digital crisis in Venezuela combining a lack of infrastructure with surveillance and severe control of information online. Amidst the siege, civil society is mounting a resistance to keep the digital realm and information flow free and alive.
India imposed 84 internet shutdowns in 2022, the highest number globally for the fifth year in a row. APC joins a global civil society coalition to urgently ask the Indian government to create meaningful safeguards for citizens' digital rights and ensure unfettered access to an open, secure and reliable internet.
Last year saw the highest number of internet shutdowns ever recorded. Such enforced digital darkness is a slippery slope of easy authoritarianism that we see spreading globally, one that countries like India, with the world's highest number of shutdowns, are using to gain undemocratic compliance from their citizens.
APC and the other signatories of this open letter urge the Department of Telecommunications to withdraw the Draft Indian Telecommunication Bill and to prepare a new rights-respecting version, in consultation with stakeholders.
The Association for Progressive Communications is outraged by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iran as well as deeply alarmed by the ensuing violent crackdown on protests, violations of women’s rights, and widespread internet shutdowns across the country.
This joint stakeholder report focuses on key issues relating to human rights online in India, including internet shutdowns, digital exclusion, freedom of speech and expression online, online harassment and hate speech, privacy, surveillance and data protection.
Since early 2021, the Kingdom of Eswatini has been gripped by waves of civil unrest, with reports of internet shutdowns implemented by the government in response to protests. It is in this climate of suspicion and unrest that cybercrime and data protection laws were gazetted in early 2022.
This submission was produced in response to the call by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for input to a report on internet shutdowns and human rights that will be presented to the 50th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2022.
One year ago, as the Myanmar military sent tanks down the streets, it shut down the internet, mobile phone networks and radio and television channels. Today, the military is ramping up efforts to cement authoritarian control of online space. This is a digital coup, and the world must resist.
In August 2021, Zambia became the latest country to restrict citizens’ access to social media platforms as the country went to the polls. The disruption of digital communications has become a recurring theme in numerous countries during elections and in times of public protest.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
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