Trends up to January 8, 2020

Type of shutdown

Of the 381 internet shutdowns recorded between January 2012 and January 4, 2020, 236 were observed to be preventive i.e. restrictions imposed in anticipation of law and order situation and 146 shutdowns were reactive in nature i.e. imposed in order to contain on-going law and order breakdowns.

Duration of shutdown

93 of the 381 internet shutdowns between 2012 and January 4, 2020, lasted less than 24 hours, 74 lasted between 24 and 72 hours, 41 lasted for over 72 hours, while no information was available on the respective duration of the remaining 208 internet shutdowns. The non-availability of information is attributable chiefly to the fact that no public notifications are issued by the Government or Internet Service Providers before, during, or after shutdowns, leaving stakeholders outside the affected areas to source this information from available news reports, which do not consistently mention the durations for the shutdown.

Nature of shutdown

Of the 381 reported incidents, 301 were targeted at mobile Internet services alone (3 in 2012, 5 shutdowns each in 2013 & 2014, 8 in 2015 and 20 in 2016, 51 in 2017, 126 in 2018 and 86 in 2019 and 1 in 2020), 28 targeted both mobile and fixed-line Internet services (4 each in 2015 and 2016, 9 in 2017,4 in 2018 and 5 in 2019 and 2 in 2020)