25 INTERNET SHUTDOWNS IN 2024 2. All governments must • In 2024, we saw progressive democracies with relatively strong track records for upholding free expression – including France, Mauritius, and Comoros – regress by implementing internet shutdowns.103 We urge entrenched and repeat offenders, including authorities in Bangladesh, Equatorial Guinea, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, and Venezuela, to put human rights at the center when addressing concerns or threatening situations during a crisis, rather than shutting down digital communications platforms or the internet, actions that have serious repercussions for human rights. • Countries with a history of internet shutdowns should conduct investigations, pursue accountability, and ensure remedy and redress for those harmed. In a promising development, authorities in Bangladesh set up a probe committee in 2024 to investigate the cause of the two-week long internet shutdown during student protests in July.104 This kind of investigation is crucial to ensure transparency and accountability for such actions, and we urge all governments and stakeholders to follow suit. commit in law and in practice to protect people’s freedom of expression, right to access information, and other internet-enabled human rights, and to pursue accountability and redress where those rights have been undermined, including through internet shutdowns. 3. The Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) should renew and deepen its commitment to preventing internet shutdowns and pursuing accountability when they occur. It’s deeply concerning to see France and Kenya, both members of the FOC, an alliance meant to advocate for internet freedom globally, undermine their own principles by imposing harmful internet shutdowns to quell protests. The FOC’s joint statement denouncing protest-related shutdowns in Iran in 2022 was a clear signal that the international community must stand against such actions.105 • The coalition should adopt stronger and more effective accountability mechanisms for FOC members to prevent such actions in the future. • Likewise, in light of the FOC discontinuing its Task Force on Internet Shutdowns (TFIS) in 2024, the coalition must develop new mechanisms, in collaboration with civil society and the private sector, for continuing its public and private advocacy against shutdowns, and for enabling more member states to step into leadership roles amid uncertain political support for internet freedom at a global level. 103 Access Now (2024). First-time culprit: France blocks TikTok in New Caledonia. https://www.accessnow.org/france-blocks-tiktok-newcaledonia/; AP (2024). Mauritius suspends access to social media ahead of parliamentary elections. https://apnews.com/article/mauritius-socialmedia-suspension-elections-pravind-jugnauth-2e4e13fcd2ab37c32f85e4d042726022; and Access Now (2024). #KeepItOn: Comoros must not black out the internet to quell post-election protests. https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/comoros-must-not-blackout-the-internet/ 104 The Daily Star (2024). Committee formed to probe internet shutdown. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/committee-formed-probe-internet-shutdown-3674941 105 Freedom Online Coalition (2022). FOC Joint Statement on Internet Shutdowns in Iran. https://freedomonlinecoalition.com/wp-content/ uploads/2022/10/FOC-Joint-Statement-on-Internet-Shutdowns-in-Iran_October-2022.pdf