India adopted a law on "turning off" the Internet
In late August, residents of India from the states of Haryana and Punjab discovered that 2G, 3G, 4G, CDMA and GPRS stopped working. SMS messages have been disabled. For several days, 50 million people were left without access to the mobile Internet. Taking into account that 77% of urban and 92% of rural residents of India use mobile phones to connect to the Network, almost all digital channels of information dissemination for residents have been blocked.
This is not the first time when the authorities resorted to this measure: since the beginning of 2017, there have been 20 partial outages in different areas. After the incident with Haryan and Punjab, the media turned their attention to a document that was released by the government of India in early August. It describes the rules and process of turning off the Internet in the country.
/ Flickr / Field Engineer / CC
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The document issued by the Ministry of Communications of India is called “Temporary suspension of telecommunications services ([in case of] emergency situations or [in order to comply] with public safety)”. It was published in the framework of the seventh section of the “Law on Telegraph” of 1885. By and large, it provides a legal mechanism for “turning off” the Internet. Previously, the procedure did not have a clear legal foundation.
According to the new rules, an order to block the Internet can be issued by a top-level official responsible for internal security, both at the country and state levels. The reason for the shutdown may be "insuperable circumstances". The document allows any employee of the Joint Secretariat to order blocking if obtaining permission from the Ministry of the Interior is "not possible." The ban can be maintained for 24 hours without permission from the General Directorate. However, any order for blocking must have certain grounds.
Orders are transmitted to telecom operators either in writing or via secure channels.
According to the IMRB report, the overall spread of the Internet in India in March 2017 was 31%. In the city, this figure doubles. Given the size of the digital economy, according to a study by the Brookings Institute, in 2015, India lost nearly a billion dollars due to Internet shutdowns. This is more than any other country in the same period.
The Indian government explains blocking an attempt to protect citizens. After the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008, the Indian parliament approved amendments to the Information Technology Act , which expanded the government’s monitoring capacity. Access restrictions are on par with curfews to ensure security in the event of unrest.
In 2017, most of the blocking occurred in the state of Kashmir, whose territory has a controversial status. Blocks were also committed in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra.
The new rules in India complement the extensive list of laws governing the "shutting down the Internet" worldwide. Although public organizations, as a rule, condemn the attempts of the authorities to control access to the Internet, as of 2016, 27 documents were developed in 27 countries to allow this.
In recent years, cases of blocking with different frequency occur throughout the world. In some countries, regular school exams have been the occasion. For example, in Ethiopia and Iraq . In some African countries, online blackout has become commonplace during political elections. In China, since 2015, there has been a law similar in principle to the new Indian rules. It also allows you to locally restrict access to the Internet for national security reasons. And the consequences of such restrictions are discussed by economists and sociologists.
“Investors will no longer turn a blind eye to financial losses caused by the suspension of service,” said Peter Micek, legal counsel at Access Now. “The disconnection directly damages the largest multinational companies and the smallest start-ups, hindering mobile transactions and blocking access to markets.”
The Brookings Institute came to the conclusion that in the period from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016, the countries of the world suffered damages in the amount of $ 2.4 billion due to local outages.
Peter Misek is convinced that more and more investors, banks and credit organizations will carefully reconsider their attitude towards states that practice such things.
PS What else do we write on our VAS Experts blog:
This is not the first time when the authorities resorted to this measure: since the beginning of 2017, there have been 20 partial outages in different areas. After the incident with Haryan and Punjab, the media turned their attention to a document that was released by the government of India in early August. It describes the rules and process of turning off the Internet in the country.
/ Flickr / Field Engineer / CC
')
Right to blackout
The document issued by the Ministry of Communications of India is called “Temporary suspension of telecommunications services ([in case of] emergency situations or [in order to comply] with public safety)”. It was published in the framework of the seventh section of the “Law on Telegraph” of 1885. By and large, it provides a legal mechanism for “turning off” the Internet. Previously, the procedure did not have a clear legal foundation.
According to the new rules, an order to block the Internet can be issued by a top-level official responsible for internal security, both at the country and state levels. The reason for the shutdown may be "insuperable circumstances". The document allows any employee of the Joint Secretariat to order blocking if obtaining permission from the Ministry of the Interior is "not possible." The ban can be maintained for 24 hours without permission from the General Directorate. However, any order for blocking must have certain grounds.
Orders are transmitted to telecom operators either in writing or via secure channels.
Why block?
According to the IMRB report, the overall spread of the Internet in India in March 2017 was 31%. In the city, this figure doubles. Given the size of the digital economy, according to a study by the Brookings Institute, in 2015, India lost nearly a billion dollars due to Internet shutdowns. This is more than any other country in the same period.
The Indian government explains blocking an attempt to protect citizens. After the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008, the Indian parliament approved amendments to the Information Technology Act , which expanded the government’s monitoring capacity. Access restrictions are on par with curfews to ensure security in the event of unrest.
In 2017, most of the blocking occurred in the state of Kashmir, whose territory has a controversial status. Blocks were also committed in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra.
The new rules in India complement the extensive list of laws governing the "shutting down the Internet" worldwide. Although public organizations, as a rule, condemn the attempts of the authorities to control access to the Internet, as of 2016, 27 documents were developed in 27 countries to allow this.
In recent years, cases of blocking with different frequency occur throughout the world. In some countries, regular school exams have been the occasion. For example, in Ethiopia and Iraq . In some African countries, online blackout has become commonplace during political elections. In China, since 2015, there has been a law similar in principle to the new Indian rules. It also allows you to locally restrict access to the Internet for national security reasons. And the consequences of such restrictions are discussed by economists and sociologists.
“Investors will no longer turn a blind eye to financial losses caused by the suspension of service,” said Peter Micek, legal counsel at Access Now. “The disconnection directly damages the largest multinational companies and the smallest start-ups, hindering mobile transactions and blocking access to markets.”
The Brookings Institute came to the conclusion that in the period from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016, the countries of the world suffered damages in the amount of $ 2.4 billion due to local outages.
Peter Misek is convinced that more and more investors, banks and credit organizations will carefully reconsider their attitude towards states that practice such things.
PS What else do we write on our VAS Experts blog:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/337584/
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