Jurisprudence Shaping Digital Rights in Southeast Asia 2. INTERNET SHUTDOWNS Internet shutdown is a measure taken by a state or authority, or on behalf of the government to intentionally disrupt access to and the use of information and communications systems online.17 This measure includes limiting a large number of people from using online communication tools or restricting internet connectivity at large. Typically, the pretext for such imposition have been national interest and security, emergency, general election, and public order. The Global Internet Shutdown report indicated that in 2021 alone, Myanmar has imposed internet shutdown fifteen times while Indonesia carried out two shutdowns.18 Despite an increase in the number of internet shutdowns carried out by governments in Southeast Asian countries, there have been very few legal actions taken to challenge the practice in courts. government’s measure to disrupt internet access to several places in the province of Papua as a response to demonstrations of Papuan students and activists in August 2019. This petition was the second attempt to challenge the Law no 11/2008 on IET after their first attempt to submit a review to the Constitutional Court failed. The petitioners asserted that the government intentionally disrupted internet access in Papua through three measures, first by throttling the internet connection to slow down internet bandwidth in several places in Papua; second, through disrupting fully telecommunication networks across Papua province and West Papua Province, which left 42 regencies in Papua without any internet connection for 14 days; and third by partially disrupting internet access in four regencies in Papua Province.21 According to the petitioners, these measures violated both good governance principles and human rights standards applicable. The government claimed that the measure was necessary and in accordance with the mandate provided in Art 40 (2b) of the IET Law to prevent the spread of electronic information containing hate speech, incitement to violence and hoaxes. One landmark decision issued by the Administrative Court in Indonesia in 2019 sheds light on how courts view this problematic practice. The administrative court decision in Indonesia, in AJI, Safenet v the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (MCI) (2020)19 referred to human rights principles in striking down the government measure to cut off internet access in Papua, particularly opining on the legality of use of a state of emergency to justify derogation of rights.20 In December 2019, Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI), an organisation promoting press freedom, together with SAFEnet Indonesia, a civil society organisation, submitted a petition to the administrative court in Jakarta, challenging the legality of the The court opined that Art 40 (2b) should be interpreted to give the government authority to cut off access only to certain (individual) electronic information containing prohibited content and therefore, disrupting internet access to a large number of people or locations cannot be justified. The court stated that disruption of internet access is a form of derogation See https://www.accessnow.org/internet-shutdowns-2022/ See https://putusan3.mahkamahagung.go.id/direktori/download_file/1e64accbf1684df97b938c64ce3e711a/ pdf/5a526ec9f653a865d177295d5763366c 20 Administrative Court Decision, no 230/G/TF/2019/PTUN-JKT, accessible at https://putusan3.mahkamahagung.go.id/ direktori/download_file/1e64accbf1684df97b938c64ce3e711a/pdf/5a526ec9f653a865d177295d5763366c 21 Administrative Court Decision, no 230/G/TF/2019/PTUN-JKT, accessible at https://putusan3.mahkamahagung.go.id/ direktori/download_file/1e64accbf1684df97b938c64ce3e711a/pdf/5a526ec9f653a865d177295d5763366c 18 19 11