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EU-US Trade and Technology Council: The European Commission and the US facilitate the creation of an internet shutdowns transparency group

The European Commission and the US have launched a new multi-stakeholder group of Internet measurement experts.

The experts plan to document Internet shutdowns and their effects on society as rapidly and comprehensively as possible. The creation of the group has been facilitated by the US.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC).

Over the past years government-imposed Internet shutdowns have been growing in quantity and sophistication across the world. In the launch event of this new group, the European Union and the United States reiterated their alarm at this increasingly entrenched practice which represents a blatant violation of human rights.

The new group of technical experts will use available data to robustly analyse how, when and where shutdowns occur. The group will also analyse the socio-economic impacts of shutdowns. The EU will be drawing on the findings of this report and future ones in its diplomatic and technical work.

In the launch event attended by policy makers, civil society and private sector stakeholders, the group presented its ground-breaking first report, ‘Technical multi-stakeholder report on Internet shutdowns: The case of Iran amid autumn 2022 protests’.  

The report provides a comprehensive picture of how Iran’s government has consistently shutdown the Internet in recent months and shines a light on the practical and economic impacts of the censorship measures.