Resource Library

The Prepare, Prevent, Resist Resource Library is organized into four overarching categories to help you find the resources most relevant to you. When conducting advocacy, carrying out awareness raising efforts, or simply learning more about shutdowns and what you can do to prepare, it is likely that you will benefit from a range of resources from more than one of these categories.

These four guides are designed to better contextualize resources, offer connections between specific materials, and support you in navigating the library stacks. Think of these as your librarian’s reference books!

Shutdown Stage
Issue Area
Subcategory
Resource Type

Measurement Lab

M-Lab provides the largest collection of open Internet performance data on the planet. As a consortium of research, industry, and

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The Global Network Initiatives Country Legal Framework Resource

The Global Network Initiatives Country Legal Framework Resource (CLFR) is a detailed set of resources examining governments’ legal authorities to intercept communications, obtain access to communications data, or restrict the content of communications in more than 50 countries. Through this resource you can review a country’s laws pertaining to 1) provision of real-time lawful interception assistance; 2) disclosure of communications data; 3) national security and emergency powers; 4) censorship-related powers; 5) oversight of access-related powers, and 6) oversight of censorship-related powers.

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Internet Rights are Human Rights

The Internet rights are Human Rights is a series of training modules concerned with the relationship between human rights, ICTs and the internet. These modules are intended to help those who work on human rights and/or ICTs to understand ways in which the internet is affecting the enjoyment and protection of rights, and may provide useful legal background to inform both advocacy and litigation.

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Primer on Researching International Law to Advance Digital Rights

While not specifically about Internet shutdowns, this primer on researching international law has three goals. First, to introduce advocates from the Americas, Africa and Asia to the international law frameworks applicable to promoting and protecting digital rights, particularly freedom of expression and privacy rights. Second, it serves as a guide to conducting legal research in support of digital rights locally, with an emphasis on the United Nations system and two regional human rights systems, namely, those operating under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the African Union. Finally, it has a compilation of technical and strategic online resources for activists who seek additional support and/or guidance.

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Digital Rights and Freedom of Expression Online

These two trainings developed by Media Defense include a total of 16 modules that aim to upskill lawyers litigating digital rights issues across sub-Saharan Africa by introducing and diving deeper into concepts of freedom of expression and digital rights on the continent.

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ABA Rule of Law Initiative Internet Freedom in Southeast Asia: Learning Module 3: Strategic Litigation & Advocacy in Defense of Internet Freedom

This curriculum developed by the American Bar Association introduces lawyers to the purposes and methods of conducting strategic litigation and advocacy in defense of Internet freedom, primarily freedom of expression and privacy rights. While it focuses specifically on Southeast Asia, it provides useful guidance for how to achieve an understanding of the legal and methodological frameworks employed by lawyers the world over to promote and defend basic human rights.

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Women and the Internet

This social media campaign sought to raise awareness around how women rely on the Internet in Tanzania to highlight the consequences of shutting it down.

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Security v Access: The Impact of Mobile Network Shutdowns, Case Study Telenor Pakistan

This report by Bytes for All, the Institute for Human Rights and Business, and the Internet Policy Observatory provides a case study outlining how research can be done in collaboration with an internet service provider (Telenor Pakistan) to better understand how an internet shutdown order is sent to ISPs and the role that companies can play in advocating for more transparency and document shutdown impact.

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The Role of Internet Service Providers in Internet Shutdowns in Africa

This one-pager outlines the role that Internet service providers play in Internet shutdowns, including how they are involved, why they comply with government requests, and what ownership means for their likelihood to shut it off. This brief is a snapshot of a much larger research study conducted by Lisa Garbe at the University of St Galen about ISP ownership in Africa and its impacts on the prevalence of Internet shutdowns.

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