(pulsing electronic tones)
- [Narrator] More governments are kicking people
off the internet than ever before.
It usually happens during politically-sensitive times
like elections, protests, and conflicts.
Last year, governments shut down the internet
more frequently than in previous years
according to a digital rights group
that started tracking the practice in 2011.
For instance, in India,
it happened in parts of the country more than 100 times.
Authorities say shutdowns help stop unrest
and the spread of fake news
and even prevent cheating on school exams.
Advocates for an open internet say shutdowns
can cripple economies and disrupt daily life
all while curtailing civil rights,
so here's how governments can kick you off the internet.
Usually when you type in a URL or hit an app icon,
the Domain Name System looks up that address
and resolves it to a string of pre-assigned numbers.
In under a second, you can usually connect to the server
and access the site.
If the government wants to block access to a specific site,
it can request the Internet service provider
to interfere with the DNS traffic.
The provider can then redirect traffic
so it never reaches those servers.
This happened last year at the height of a political crisis
in Venezuela when opposition leader Juan Guaido
tried to seize power from President Nicolas Maduro.
Guaido was standing with soldiers
outside a military base
when he began live-streaming on Twitter.
(Juan speaking foreign language)
- [Narrator] He called people to rise up
against President Nicolas Maduro.
While Guaido's call to action ricocheted across the world,
at home, his message was blocked
for a large number of internet users.
This chart shows that Venezuela's
state-run internet provider
restricted access to social media.
The company didn't respond to a request for comment.
- We're looking at something similar to radio censorship
or TV censorship when authorities might bleep out
parts of a sentence or a speech.
- [Narrator] Alp Toker is the founder
of an internet advocacy group called NetBlocks.
He says it's surprisingly easy for the government
to turn off access to specific sites.
- [Alp] This is basically an engineer
with a button on the switch.
When they see something they don't like,
they press the button.
- [Narrator] But authorities can be more subtle
in how they control the internet,
not just by blocking sites,
but by simply slowing down the connection.
(bubble popping) (pleasant electronic music)
This is called throttling,
so it looks like you're apps are still running
when, in fact, the interference is at a level
that makes using the internet painful,
so the video you're trying to watch on YouTube
becomes very low res or it keeps loading.
We spoke to network engineers
who monitor internet censorship,
and they say that it's even hard for them
to really pinpoint the specific reason
behind a slow connection,
and they say that's likely why some governments
have turned to throttling to shrug off accountability.
In some extreme cases,
governments can order service providers
to turn off the internet completely.
This happened last year during anti-government protests
in Iraq when the internet was cut off.
(phone buzzing)
- You connect the WiFi and opened the browser,
there is nothing and the provider sent us messages
we are sorry because the government cut off the internet.
- [Narrator] Ameer Hazim is an Iraqi photographer
in Baghdad, and he's been posting his photos on Instagram.
The Iraqi Prime Minister at the time said
it's the government's right to restrict access
when the internet is being used to stoke violence
and conspiracy against the homeland.
Because internet blackouts disrupt critical services
and can hurt the economy,
authorities often target specific networks
and geographic areas.
At the height of the protests in Iraq,
the government imposed daily digital curfews
between five p.m. to seven a.m.
Then during business hours,
the government ordered service providers
to turn on the connection again.
We spoke to private companies in several countries,
and they say they have little power to refuse a request
because authorities can threaten
to terminate their licenses.
Citizens have looked for workarounds
like using VPNs that connect to networks
outside of the country.
Some will pay for expensive satellite connections.
Others, like Hazim, have bought international SIM cards
from Jordan that are activated before entering Iraq.
- That helped us to keep people updated.
I started during lives from Tahrir Square
showing the area around and what's happening really
and how people are living
and how the government are using violence.
- [Narrator] Toker says these solutions
may end up encouraging
more aggressive moves from the government.
- The more people attempt to get around it,
the more governments are gonna try to switch it off.
- [Narrator] The UN says restrictions on internet access
are a violation of human rights,
but many countries already have laws
that make it legal to shut down the internet
on grounds related to national security
or stopping the spread of fake news.
- [Alp] So while this might have started off
as authoritarian dictatorship move,
it gets encoded into laws.
It becomes very difficult
for the public to complain about it.
(buzzing electronic tones)