When Sovereignty Meets Connectivity: Internet Shutdowns and the Limits of State Power

On 3 May 2023, in the North East of India, Manipur switched off. Mobile internet was suspended by the State under the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services Rules, 2017, following ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities. This had been an order meant to last days, but was extended for months, thus making it one of the longest shutdowns ever imposed by a democracy. However, Manipur is only one data point in a global pattern, in which states switch off connectivity and claim the act is an exercise of sovereign authority over their own digital space. The framing is contestable when looked through a legal lens: internet shutdowns are increasingly the clearest test of whether “digital sovereignty” can override clearly defined human rights guarantees, or must submit to the same scrutiny as any other restriction on fundamental freedoms.