Internet shutdown
termISP & telecomgovernance & risk
A government-ordered disconnection of internet access for a population - nationwide or regional, total or limited to mobile data - executed by licensed operators under legal instruction rather than by any technical attack.
The mechanism is administrative, which is why no protocol change addresses it: connectivity in most countries runs through a handful of licensed operators with licences to lose. The damage is much wider than speech - payments, delivery work, health services, exams, customs and remote contracts all assume connectivity - and it falls hardest on people with no financial buffer. Shutdowns also remove the evidentiary record of whatever prompted them, which is a consequence with a longer tail than the outage itself.
Also known as: kill switch, blackout, apagao, regional cut, mobile shutdown