Digital disintermediation, technical and national sovereignty: the Internet shutdown of Catalonia's 'independence referendum'

Abstract

This article analyses the digital shutdown experienced in Catalonia within the framework of the independence referendum of 1 October 2017, which had been declared illegal by Spain’s Constitutional Court. We question the notion of digital disintermediation and examine how Internet control and blackout processes are not exclusive to authoritarian political systems, but have instead begun to develop in Western democracies in situations of socio-political crisis. We analyse the type of shutdown implemented in Catalonia, the players (both institutional and corporate) taking part in the process, and the resistance strategies implemented by civil society to maintain the flow of digital communications. In our conclusions, we reflect upon the implications of the events that took place in Catalonia for the future of digital sovereignty and suggest further lines of research for monitoring similar shutdown processes.