Internet shutdowns don’t make anyone safer: opinion

This photo illustration show a mobile browser unable to connect to Facebook, following the Sri Lankan government's island-wide social network shutdown, in Colombo on May 13, 2019. - Sri Lanka blocked access to Facebook and WhatsApp on May 13 after a posting sparked anti-Muslim riots across several towns in the latest fallout from the Easter Sunday suicide attacks. (Photo by LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI / AFP)

Around the world, governments are hitting on a modish new idea: Turn the Internet off. Sometimes they mean it literally. 

Methods vary, but the trend is clear enough. Countries are increasingly ordering telecoms and other companies to block network access, shut down messaging services, or otherwise restrict digital applications or websites, usually citing public order or national-security concerns. In extreme cases, Internet access can be "blacked out” entirely. Worldwide, such shutdowns rose to 188 last year, up from 75 in 2016.