Internet Shutdowns

certain parts of the and if you think of it as the and

the ability to build he that thank you very

much and he didn't tell you I'm here for good karma all the bad stuff I do as the law where this is my way to redeem myself as the say there are and no jokes about your ears because there only 2 stories so found in such shutdowns number there was is wanted to know about this topic to life doesn't offer you many choices the the in we just heard about what would

happen if there were no internet in this space and what that means what happens to a lot of people in the world is that they do face that reality and there are no meant no choices left this is a definition of what an internet shut down means but don't look at it just ignore it very talking about this was it because before we can teach ourselves what is at stake the technical and social facts on the ground now being created at top speed will have data mining to the nature of our political social and economic life for generations to come the last year when I was at the other stage we said at the last kilometer is the last chance which this generation has because the power moves outward from the center part of the next he said in 20 16 that the net is turning into a behaviorist a machine for the benefit of a few data miners and in the states and i've in full form it will change the very nature of the Internet if we don't take urgent action it was a depressing topic none of you actually liked it now in 2017 here we are to actually talk about what happens when states actually around what they're doing now when they arrive the states the government's those traditionally in power those who have now knowing how to use the Internet for their own users what they do now what to do what they do now is that the bottleneck of the Internet and in doing this in part because power of the internet is so great and because the flexibility of the mutability of the net is so great for many

years States relied on a scalpel approach sensing a few websites head and there sometimes the name of copyright infringement sometimes for defamation and then the confined an excuse then national security a phrase is not defined any vary in many jurisdictions but come to rescue when you don't have any excuse everything is justified for national security not that

they're not any valid concerns and there are valid match up with a national security concerns but not the exertion of exigent circumstances all the time now as time passes everyone learns new tricks and so did the states it was too burdensome find websites here at 12 websites there let's shut this down and shut that down but once they figured it out the bother then you can just kill tired thank you wanna actually with all this kind of approach so you see blackouts kill switches social

media clampdowns this might sound a little strange to the people in this room or the ones who lived in the proper in living perhaps Western democracies but it doesn't sound so strange to the ones who living in Malaysia Chad Uganda serious it's European Pakistan Brazil Iraq Jordan Correa Vietnam Aegeria Libya out Turkey Zimbabwe Bangladesh and indeed now let's look at the light if you haven't already gotten bored and attention is done to this this is a definition which is

used to tell you what a blackened actually mean that's what an internet shut down its it's an intentional destruction of internet or electronic communications rendering them in accessable or effectively use unusable for a specific population or verbena locations often to exert control over the flow of information so that when I was trying to do this presentation I wanted to show you of that upside aligned between but then it on defined right just started to not use my internet connection and tried to look at things which are already had to everything else is everything else here is static it's not fancy and screenshots because you cannot actually acts as the not this year the English-speaking part of Cameroon saw a shutdown off 94 dates that region those regions which are the and the fauna regions are home to more than 5 million people where the residence protects state the discrimination against English speakers was fighting there were

15 documented shutdowns in 2015 that many 15 then in 2016 there were 56 shut down and now in 2017 by me the had 14 in India alone or I spend half of my life this number is going to look very different at the end of the year unit shutdowns which are and negative expression of digital sovereignty and not just engine undemocratic societies anymore some of the countries I mean may have undemocratically genes that India the is the largest democracy in the wallet the cat to the states the government's controlled is now on present if you need anything open people use it never speak to the power and saw due to you begin shutting everything down and you begin dismembering your country by dismembering the net Over the past few years the number of instances in which Internet access was blocked for entire regions by the Indian government has been steadily come up at time those are the numbers as you see 14 in 2015 31 in 20 16 and 14 in 2017 they only in me I would remind you again these Internet shutdowns are usually instituted as responses to conflict solution in situations that is to prevent rumor driven as conditions of civil unrest but they're also instituted at times for reasons which are far more trivial for example preventing cheating during examinations this rise in

frequency and broadening of reasons behind shutdowns even in the face of strong international condemnation after practice cause concern to those of us who believe in democratic values the not only trapped in the Democratic working of nations but also point out to the gradual normalization of the mind set that permits such blanket restrictions of Internet access many countries across the wall of the

shutdowns have been used as a tool to constrict the functioning of the democratic process by restricting Internet access at strategic times like during an election as happened in Ghana or during public most mobilization as was witnessed in Egypt India there are for your software gets produced or your cause get elected Digital India is now a reality that is the big program of our entire society is going to be digitized the monetization of 86 per cent of the currency was pointed out in November of 20 16 sure us States power or essential facilities in the economy and society the push toward a cashless India demonstrated the necessity of the mobile Internet in the economy if you were going to use digital systems of payments while at other such areas of using the Internet to make your everyday transactions then you understood how important mobile Internet in the countries they come from the developing world in India 94 . 8 per cent of internet connections are to mobile Internet not broadband not dial-up Internet part mobile Internet and that's why we keep talking about the mobile connections what happens then in family life and human relations in business processes both the then and between farms are now dependent on the availability of digital communications which is vise the increasing spread of government imposed Internet shut throughout the country is a matter of concern these restrictions can cancel people's civil liberties intended livelihoods and cost businesses their ability to function this slide is my my

organization called suffer freedom all center in as associated water I and maintains this dynamic in dimension down tracker this is a map of India and this tells you how many shutdowns have happened in each region and it also tells you the details about the numbers if you click on a particular state it will actually tell you the detail of what happened then the view to extract more information from the data collected from this tracker we also categorize the shutdowns on the basis of kind of services that are restricted so that the order was for restricting mobile fixed-line or boards the modes of connecting to Internet what was the duration was at less than 24 hours more than 72

hours How long was the Internet's shutdown instituted for what is the nature of the shutdown was supposed to be the active or was it supposed to be proactive was a Boston couldn't which only happened for example if you would turn your attention to the rest of this map on the 18th of April as a precautionary measure mobile Internet worse for Internet services were suspended in the would therefore inflection and they're in the US to go up the escalation of tensions over social media posts that sent Pakistan and he is about our neighbor the service was reported to be stored in the next day no and that should down

is more than just a disconnection from what's for signal or Facebook or Twitter it actually means the limiting opportunities for education for artists who show case their talent using various other website you to SoundCloud entrepreneur worse who have leveraged over that lets them and define idea without winning a hold in their pocket or restricting avenues for knowing that are provided by various platforms and X due to during intervention students are unable to appear for various examinations mitigation agencies journalists and families are unable to establish contact in crisis hit zones and dispersal of benefits Mitchell various e-government schemes is hindered could you have a digital economy or digital India if

there is no digital out there if you take away the Internet how do you actually tells a society now everything is going to be done by the internet there isn't much data there are a few studies economic studies you know because civil liberties and free speech and expression doesn't appeal as an argument these days it's the economic losses which are far more appealing to everybody when you lose money then there's some attention to be paid about it but here are some kind of build some people who actually suffered these Internet shutdowns talking about their experiences as you see this as a person from stream and there was a community manager and tells you that life comes to a standstill snapping was the biggest in terms of how the communicated it's like getting strangulated no communication you can't reach any man here's another person these are not very rich people they use but they're in general as they can use the ingenuity of the net to actually run businesses this somebody who does their entire business on what's taking orders providing an orders what happens when you actually plug it up and there is no business the what

happens to surgeons then they tell you that most hospitals are now going to be hosting their databases on servers online various life-saving drugs and surgical instruments are shipped across the wallet ordering in making payments and subsequent tracking of the shipment or to just access patient information when you to then they

improvise a contingency plans because there isn't much option of there what happens to somebody who thinks that the thing decked to evolution in the country is going to be an example and then is suddenly faced by this complete blackout were shut down there are definitely shh justifications justifications are easy to find law is not 1 of is just and justice is not only found in legal terms yeah that is coming from lower the justifications offered for shutdowns including the prevention of unlawful assembly and often used to excuse are far too narrow to sustain any measure the this that of undesired social consequences exigent circumstances related to use them

all in some constitutional law does this definitely do in my constitutional order to prohibit certain forms of speech but as a team as our sense of urgency every day and emergency is not sufficient justification for limiting or communications across the economic educational and private lives of tens of millions of citizens just to give you an idea of the state of joint Kashmiri has 30 million people that's a small number compared to Indian standards but it is million people another justification is that it's done to prevent the circulation of rumors some is being propagated by word of mouth since long before the printing of news feed it 1st let alone the adoption of Internet but that's an often-used excuse what what happens then I shut down only there is some data on the economic loss Mr. barrel resting 2016 released a report it only captures data from some power of 2015 up to June 30th off 2016 he examined 81 shot down shutdowns in 19 countries and their impact on the grass limit domestic product of those nations based upon the analysis he found that between July von 2015 and June unitarity it's 2016 the Internet shutdowns cost at the 1st 2 . 4 billion US dollars lost in GDP globally he also taught us that 968 million that's almost close to 0 over 45 per cent of those losses in India 968 million that's

and he looks at the Brookings Institution that's where the report is coming from In the talk to a lot of people who actually suffered this these there are young entrepreneur worse we spoke to somebody who's a 26 so year-old sealed off in e-commerce platform that takes handicrafts from uh it had a graph from workmen and then puts it on e-commerce platforms what happens to his business the is shutdown no what he has become is part of this collective punishment system off shutting down the economy for Indian national security purposes what has happened is that the state has decided that an entire economy is to be punished for some excuse rich it seems is justified the what are

these shutdowns actually do the the time the net from a unifying structure in the society into a differentiating structure in the society and at different shifts in 2 ways it differentiates it as in 1 region does not have Internet connections but it also differentiates societies by education levels when the little so that the bricks Wikipedia it's very like turning off the educational system like forging the universities which also the little photon is doing so what is really happening is that the government operates an active ignorance policy and the collective punishment policy some people must remain ignorant because writing all and free flow of information is going to become the biggest set to those who are in power so let's just stop the proliferation of information and impose a punishment to all of those who may or may not have any political ideas like the CEO I was talking about or small entrepreneur or in an economy for justifications which can only be justified 2 for a limited period of time and not as an exigent circumstance for ever the this is what we talked about in 2016 is the internet freedom marked 1 this is the internet which we now have yesterday with the lovers would intimate

health clinic they give us means a more Jesus to pick up holidays feeling about the Internet I can make up my mind because 1 day after like this the other day so sad the other day I felt very excited but whether it is a depressing ideal or it's enough listing idea there are

many contradictory things happening in the internet which we have right now but a big part of it is not tonight we but the definitely can fix it and operated in a very and moving towards the next we actually want so I didn't tell you about all of this this kind of stuff is happening it's happening in some parts it's happening in other parts is anyone doing anything about it yes there is there's international condemnation in July of 20 16 the United Nations Human Rights Council stated that it condemns under equal could measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt axis or dissemination of information online in violation of international human rights law the UN Human Rights Council specifically all laws on all the States to refrain from NCs such measures in 30 governments of the Freedom online coalition declared their commitment to fight the Internet shutdowns in an important statement in March of 2017 this freedom online coalition includes member countries as diverse as France Tunisia Ghana states and Australia I think that this is happening because the states have police power because the citizenry has power now it can speak to multitudes and it doesn't think and it wants to talk and it's going to find out ways to talk freedom of the mind depends on freedom of the media which

depends on free technology which depends and free hardware free software and free binary the lights of technology users and how to protect them are the most important issues for the next 5 years living room In digital voluntary can either be blessing or a curse depending on how we carry our democratic values into this new age and what do we have to show for all of this is going to be the various shutdowns span blackouts while the next 3 billion tried to come on line or is it going to be a free and open information mechanism that promise of the Internet that it offers these interconnections in a social ecosystem where people just by the mere use often ingenuity can become either entrepreneur words or whoever they want to be thank you very

much and I'll take some questions if you have any half and interviewed them right but I'm gonna hold them right so you have to be very very short the windows of so

the Brookings Institution report that you referenced 0 1 it it actually included a Facebook having to shut down 3 basics in India as an internet shut down where there was a kind of net neutrality thing sort of a little bit uncertain about you know the the the tallies that they came up with that I wonder if you could just talk about us and talk about uh the issue of net neutrality clashing with people's ability to get online very very cheaply you free figure and yes those are the only few numbers which are available and right now the methodology can be tempted but uh Turkey blocks

has a calculator in order to understand or calculate what may be the economic losses some trade associations in different parts of India have come up with some kind of losses somebody skilled 250 million EUR Europe's some people centers around 2 million rupees in a few days but there is definitely a requirement and the need for better methodology and to collect more data out what are the economic losses what is the impact on human life and this is not to account for the loss in now just for investors whatever article laughter damages so those are the numbers I could find and that's why I cited I totally agree with you that they're not they're not can't be relied as gospel or these are the numbers that they give you a little indication about what's happening what's going to happen is that even after the the monetization there was a 239 per cent increase in the use of digital payments in India within 2 months and that number of and it actually goes and this is a country which does not rely on credit cards and debit cards but has now leapfrogged into using these things then you move to a society than the economic losses are going to be at a much larger scale than they were before this came out and this is uh dual this only added on 2 June 2016 I cut my last year's stock was so boarding nobody listened to but I did talk a lot about 3 basics that time 3 basic is not only a network neutrality problem but it really bothers me even we talk about Internet issues and we tried to divide them and segregate them into the silos it's also privacy problem today Europe and US your markets are exhausted here the people who were still there in India only 320 million people right now have Internet access our population is 1 . 2 5 billion people now it makes sense to give and move of a packets for free in exchange of mining of the data it's got a like Facebook really want to offer us access online and they can just say for 2 hours every day you can access anything you want on the bed right of the say I can only get free internet all under have which would be gate yeah by Facebook there's only 1 reason In exchange of my data on which is how the business model assisting that's what I'm getting so what we don't want is this charity in the name of charity this deed Vivi actually send all of our data or you're asking was or a piece of a regulator and in India the people said no we don't want that deal thank you very much we're just get our own dealing in some other way because this also as far as you with that users of Internet are merely consumers as of internet was a shopping mall and the height of a review on the shop as if he never created any as of even not supposed to have all the what's all the time open for everybody but it was only that I'm going to consume what's being being directly by 1 person who was going to cure it my news feeds and that's why it's not just but just a question of ivermectin neutrality or about axis but these are intertwined additions I hear what you're saying that the Brookings report actually took that into account and I may have different disagreements or agreements about it but all I'm saying is this these losses are going to increase so as a friend of mine would stick it stuck between a cough guys novel and a catch 22 you do not know where to go I am very very sorry I have to quiz the candidates phase

because we don't have about 5 any more of a resource but were the host grows 0 0 2 2 things that there is a contradiction between uh the to the privacy of others about this because of of those a public good of the 2nd thing I those lower premium with little some of the stuff of of the fit and at the very thing that's happening in Turkey and the

worked uh President they're going to the Wikipedia and what's happening in universities all I'm saying is it's not always a complete blackout of shut down it could be parts of the Internet when BDS shut down your actually depriving a big part of the society about how they get educated themselves I think that's fine that's either I spend a lot of my time and I do not knowing anything and I do not have to feel guilty about the fact that there is a place 2nd go to win learned at think very living in a time then facts it itself facts themselves have become a little dangerous and then crowdsourced factually that sites like Wikipedia are shut down for some reason in our country then it also tells you that the authorities are imposing a policy of ignorance on their populations and that's what I meant and the the 1st part about how sorry I did not understand the question that you said there is an between privacy and public good I think we cannot allow longer discussion that you're talking about public good as an economic concept or you're talking about is that the utility or privacy but I think that a given indications to to wrap this up but I will come back again thank you for

your patience and thank you very much for

the the whole world will rule the world in