These slides were used for the Anatomy of Internet Shutdowns panel at Nullcon2020 on 8th March. https://nullcon.net/website/media-track.php

1. 3, 5, 6, 14, 31, 79, 134,
106*, 6*
What do these numbers represent?1
1. Source: www.internetshutdowns.in

2. What is an Internet Shutdown?
● “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.”2
● Usually state intervention
2. AccessNow: https://www.accessnow.org/cms/assets/uploads/2020/02/KeepItOn-2019-report-1.pdf

3. India v/s RoW
Source: AccessNow: https://www.accessnow.org/keepiton/

4. Shutdowns in India
● Section 144 of CrPC or Temporary Suspension of
Telecom Services Rules 2017
● Proactive/Preventive
● Lack of transparency
● Limited review
● Definitive trend, urban shift

5. Anuradha Bhasin vs UOI
● Proportionality
● Time bound, public orders
with reviews
● Inconvenience, not an
excuse
● Sec 144 CrPC v/s Temporary
Suspension of Telecom
Services Rules 2017
● No retrospective review +
restoration
● Executive review
● Reasonable restrictions

6. Whitelisted Internet
Detailed write-up ::https://www.medianama.com/2020/01/223-analysis-of-whitelisted-urls-in-jammu-and-kashmir-how-usable-are-they /
● 8 orders (14/1, 18/1, 24/1, 31/1, 7/2, 15/2, 24/2, 4/3)
● 153 -> ~1700 entries before it was suspended on 4/3/2020
● Only specific websites/hostnames allowed
● What we looked for while testing:
○ Unrestricted vs restricted condition
○ Redirects?
○ Visual Impact (Page Layout, Images)
○ Log-in sections accessible or not
○ Subjective assessment of functionality impacted

10. Entries that could not be analysed
due to inadequate / incorrect
information
10%
Entries that were practically usable 20%
Entries that were partially usable 23%
Entries that were not usable in any
meaningful way
47%
Dataset: https://zenodo.org/record/3627665#.XmDAky0Q29s
What we observed

11. Other “interesting” observations
● Entries without hostnames/URLs (App names, IP Addresses,
incomplete)
● Banks without login domains
● Only 1 audio/video service listed functioned (ignore speed)
● Duplicates and errors that made it through multiple iterations
● Search engines (Canadian and French-canadian, limited results)
● Chat app (dropped from 31-Jan)
● 15 Feb onwards - Login and support pages were explicitly listed
● Webex meeting URL of a specific employee

12. Questions raised
● Process and criteria applied to:
○ Select these specific entries.
○ Reject some services provided by the government
○ Reject websites and services that are similar and provide the
same or comparable services?
● Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) views with regard to the
violation of Net Neutrality?
● What, if any, technical testing was conducted?
● What, if any, was the review process put in place for the list?
● Role of ISPs/TSPs / Discretion

13. Dataset: https://zenodo.org/record/3627665#.XmDAky0Q29s
What now?
● Are internet shutdowns effective?
● What are the costs they impose?
● How sustainable are internet shutdowns?
● How do they affect information flows?
● What about alternatives?
○ Blacklists/Whitelists

14. All is well... Oh no!

15. Still…? Still… Still…?