Push Back Against States' Internet Shutdowns, UN Urges

Blanket internet shutdowns by governments "inherently impose unacceptable consequences for human rights and should never be imposed," the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Thursday. Any state-implemented shutdowns, if they do happen, should be "clearly grounded in unambiguous, publicly available law," necessary for some legitimate aim as defined in human rights law and as narrow as possible in terms of duration and the networks and services affected, it said. ISPs and communications companies should take "all possible lawful measures to prevent a shutdown that they have been asked to implement" and do what they can to prevent or mitigate the worst human rights impacts. The report said they should challenge shutdown requests and implement such requests narrowly. It said the #KeepItOn coalition of detection networks, advocacy groups and media outlets reported 931 shutdowns in 74 countries between 2016 and 2021. It said a dozen countries implemented more than 10 shutdowns during that five-year span.