Jurisprudence Shaping Digital Rights in Southeast Asia II. ACCESS AND INTERNET SHUTDOWN 1. HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS ON INTERNET ACCESS Access to the internet is the foundation based on which people and communities exercise a whole range of rights. Beyond being an enabler of rights, meaningful access to the internet is increasingly being viewed as a right in itself. The pandemic demonstrated the centrality of the internet in every facet of our lives, as well as to public governance. However, one of the greatest threats to reliable access to the internet is state imposed internet shutdowns. downs are illegal in international law.11 International law requires that states demonstrate the necessity, legality, proportionality and legitimacy of any action taken to curtail human rights online. In the five countries covered in this study, the issue of access constitutes a multilayer problem ranging from the lack of adequate technical infrastructure to deliberate arbitrary measures of governments to restraint users’ access to information or speech and curtailing users’ ability to access the internet at large. Filtering or blocking of websites and/or content and imposition of internet shutdowns are the most common means through which access to the internet is restricted in the region. Content, infrastructure, and platform related regulation are used in conjunction with each other for such imposition. A 2021 resolution of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) categorised the disruption of internet access through internet shutdown and online censorship as violations of the rights to seek, receive or impart information.10 Similarly, a report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the freedom of assembly and association stated that internet shut- Resolution adopted on 7th July 2021, A/HRC/47/L.22, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/ G21/173/56/PDF/G2117356.pdf?OpenElement 11 See Ending Internet Shutdown: a path forward: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, A/HRC/47/24/Add.2, available at https://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/ Get?OpenAgent&DS=A/HRC/47/24/Add.2&Lang=E 10 9