SPECIAL COLLECTION OF THE CASE LAW ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION As a matter of fact, internet shutdowns have proven to be a clear reflection of the deterioration of human rights.9 For example, in a recent case from Iran, an internet shutdown led to “cutting off mobile data; disrupting popular social media platforms; throttling Internet service; and blocking individual users, encrypted DNS services, text messages, and access entirely”.10 These shutdowns are not solely associated with authoritarian regimes. They also happen in “consolidated democracies”. In 2019, access to the internet was shut down in the underground by the Metropolitan police to curtail climate justice protests planned across London.11 In the words of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on peaceful assembly and association, “Shutdowns have become an entrenched practice in certain regions, especially as a means for incumbent regimes to retain power and stifle dissent. Shutdowns are lasting longer, becoming harder to detect and targeting particular social media and messaging applications and specific localities and communities.”12 Eventually, in view of the governments, shutdowns lead to a host of social ills: “suppressing the right of peaceful assembly and freedoms of association and expression; eroding civic space; reinforcing a continued climate of economic uncertainty; disrupting access to healthcare, emergency services, and financial services; preventing payments for salaries, utilities, and education; and limiting the ability of journalists, human rights defenders, and others to report on and document human rights violations or abuses that are taking place during internet shutdowns, or communications disruptions.”13 The aim of this paper is to identify the most relevant aspects of the notion of internet shutdowns in light of applicable international and regional human rights regimes and standards. The paper will also establish the most relevant international and regional legal and soft-law standards that need to be taken into consideration when examining decisions by States to disrupt access to the internet. In this sense, the most relevant legal and standard-setting documents will be presented and commented in the first part of the paper. The second part will analyze case law criteria established by regional and sub-regional courts and their application to cases involving internet shutdowns. It will also present several decisions adopted by national courts in different regions of the world to identify possible common trends and areas for improvement in the effective protection of internet access by the judiciary. matic-impact-peoples-lives-and-human 9 Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Internet shutdowns: trends, causes, legal implications and impacts on a range of human rights, 13 May 2022, A/HRC/50/55, para 24, https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ ahrc5055-internet-shutdowns-trends-causes-legal-implications-and-impacts. 10 “FOC Joint Statement on Internet Shutdowns in Iran”, October 2022, https://freedomonlinecoalition.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/FOCJoint-Statement-on-Internet-Shutdowns-in-Iran_October-2022.pdf 11 Giovanni De Gregorio and Nicole Stremlau, Internet Shutdowns and the Limits of Law / International Journal of Communication 14(2020), p 4225. 12 Ending Internet shutdowns: a path forward. Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Human Rights Council Forty-seventh session 15 June 2021, A/HRC/47/24/Add.2, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/ GEN/G21/149/66/PDF/G2114966.pdf?OpenElement. 13 “FOC Joint Statement on Internet Shutdowns in Iran”, October 2022, https://freedomonlinecoalition.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ FOC-Joint-Statement-on-Internet-Shutdowns-in-Iran_October-2022.pdf 9