NEW DELHI: For the fifth consecutive year, India continued to be the top most violator of internet freedoms among democratic countries. People in Jammu and Kashmir continue to be the worst sufferers.
The data compiled by global digital rights group Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition shows that India enforced at least 84 shutdowns in 2022. Out of this, nearly 60% of India’s internet shutdowns last year occurred in Jammu and Kashmir, where authorities disrupted access due to “political instability and violence,” according to the report.
India imposed the highest number of internet shutdowns globally in 2022, a new report has revealed, in what critics say is yet another blow to the country’s commitment to freedom of speech and access to information.
Of the 187 internet shutdowns recorded worldwide, 84 took place in India, according to the report published early this week by Access Now, a New York based advocacy group that tracks internet freedom.
The world’s largest democracy of more than 1.3 billion people has topped the list for the fifth year, the group said, raising concerns about India’s commitment to internet freedom under its current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The responsibility of Indian states for the majority of shutdowns globally is impossible to ignore and a deep problem on its own,” the report said. “Authorities in regions across the country are increasingly resorting to this repressive measure, inflicting shutdowns on more people in more places on the pretext of stabilizing the situation on the security front.”
In August 2019, the BJP revoked the autonomy of the Muslim-majority state Jammu and Kashmir and split it into two centrally administered Union Territories, Ladakh and J&K, bringing the entire region under greater control of New Delhi. The unprecedented decision sparked anger among the residents and the central government has frequently resorted to communication blockade since, a move rights groups say is aimed at quashing not only dissent but also to curb protests.
Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, authorities in the states of West Bengal and Rajasthan imposed more shutdowns than other Indian regions in response to “protests, communal violence and exams,” according to the report.
Experts fear that the internet shutdowns may have increased in India during 2023. Manipur has been cited as an example where internet shutdown has been enforced for over 200 days, as reported by InternetShutdowns.in, an organisation that tracks incidents of internet shutdowns in the country.
Mobile internet has been completely or partially suspended in Manipur since May 3, 2023, after ethnic violence erupted in the northeastern state, between the Meitei and Kuki communities. There are hardly any orders available in public domain which can specify how and when the communication blockade was enforced.
The internet was briefly restored for three days in September, only to be shut down again. This was officially announced by the central government in New Delhi. But there is no authoritative announcement from the state government in Manipur.
As per news reports, the internet ban had been extended till November 23, citing concerns about potential misuse of social media for spreading hate speech and inciting violence.
However, there is no official information on the restoration of internet services.
Loss of Economic Activity
In Jammu and Kashmir alone, more than 500-day communication blackout in 2019 and 2020 cost the economy more than $2.4 billion, according to the region’s traders. These losses are estimated on a rough calculation and no official figures are available either from J&K or the central government. The losses could be more if a scientific evaluation is done by appropriate authorities.
“Internet access is vital for realising economic security,” Access Now said.
From market vegetable sellers to larger businesses dependent on online apps for payment, the loss of internet access stifles trade.
The communication blockade also adversely impacts journalism, newspapers and electronic television channels. Most of the newspapers went out of print due to lack of access to communication facilities. Only one media centre was established by the J&K government with three computers for hundreds of journalists in 2019.
India has the world’s second largest digital population, following China, with more than 800 million internet users. The internet has become a vital social and economic lifeline for large swathes of the population and connects the country’s isolated rural pockets, with its growing cities.
The disruptions “impacted the daily lives of millions of people for hundreds of hours in 2022,” the report said.
At least 187 internet shutdowns across 35 countries were recorded in 2022. Thirty-three of these 35 countries are repeat offenders. Internet shutdowns are a means to wipe out online communication, which directly impacts day-to-day functioning in an increasingly digital world, but they also have important and serious knock-on effects on democratic movements, and sometimes provide cover for violence, as reporting crime and making contact for support becomes hard to do.
Authorities around the world shut down the internet and other forms communication due to “protests, active conflict, examinations, elections, political instability, and other high-profile national events” in 2022.
The #KeepItOn campaign was launched by a coalition of about 70 organisations in 2016. Since then, India has accounted for approximately 58% of all shutdowns documented in Access Now’s Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project (STOP database).
“Internet shutdowns are dangerous acts of digital authoritarianism,” the report states. Ukraine comes a distant second with 22 shutdowns in 2022, followed by Iran with 18, and with seven internet shutdowns, Myanmar stands fourth in the list of countries with most internet shutdowns. (Although Myanmar’s internet shutdown lasted for more than 570 days.)
India’s response to internet shutdowns
Currently, suspension of telecom services is presided by the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency & Public Safety) Rules, 2017, notified under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. The 2017 Rules provide for temporary shutdown of telecom services in a region up to 15 days at once.
Since then, the Rules have been used by the authorities to curtail internet freedom in Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Rajasthan and other states. There are reports of Indian government’s throttling or suspension of internet services in regions struck by protest. Internet shutdowns were used during the Agneepath protests, the farmers protest, etc.
The prolonged internet shutdown in Kashmir was challenged by Anuradha Bhasin, the Executive Editor of the Kashmir Times’ in J&K. She argued the internet is essential for the press and that by shutting it down, the government forced the media to come to “a grinding halt”.
In Anuradha Bhasin vs Union of India, the Supreme Court of India ruled that an indefinite suspension of internet services would be illegal under Indian law and that orders for internet shutdown must satisfy the tests of necessity and proportionality.
After the Supreme Court judgement on the matter, the Union government made some amendments to the Rules in November 2020. However, in December 2021 the Standing Committee on Communication and Information Technology chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was not satisfied with the amendments and recommended more changes in the 2017 Rules.
The Committee recommended to review the Rules to address all aspects of internet shutdown, to make amendments in the Rules that are in tune with changing technology to ensure minimum disturbance to the public and issuing uniform guidelines for states/UTs before ordering an internet shutdown.
Even the 2023 report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communication and Information Technology makes critical observations about the Ministry of Home Affairs and Department of Telecommunications. The Committee headed by Prataprao Shinde, an MP from Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), expressed its concerns over the non-maintenance of Internet Shutdown records.
“The Committee find it unfortunate to note that no efforts have been made by the DoT and MHA to implement the recommendation of the Committee and maintain records related to internet shutdowns ordered by State Governments,” the Standing Committee report observed.
In a 53-page-long document, the Standing Committee has given a list of amendments and problems in the existing 2017 Rules.
Tackling disinformation
Governments across the world say that they enforce an internet shutdown to stop the flow of misinformation during a state of crisis.
However, reports have suggested that internet shutdowns work in an adversarial manner, as they enhance if not encourage the flow of misinformation. Case studies from Kenya show how social media sites and the government failed to stop the flow of misinformation and hate speech despite imposing an internet shutdown. “Disinformation and hate speech around the election period is a very serious issue in Kenya, but preventing people from using major communications platforms is not a proportionate or effective way to stem it,” an Access Now report stated.
In the Indian context, a study has shown that in Kashmir “rumors and disinformation continue to spread with or without access to digital communication networks, whose primary role is that of accelerators of information diffusion.”
The only G20 country with a poor internet shutdown record
India has been referring to itself as the “Mother of Democracy” on the posters of the G-20 summit being held in India. The G-20, which “is the premier forum for international cooperation”, brings together the “world’s major advanced and emerging economies.”
But India will be the only country in this coveted group of 20 countries that has imposed an internet shutdown more than twice. Russia and Brazil are the other two courtiers that enforced two and one internet shutdowns respectively in 2022.
The report says that the problem is not just internet shutdowns, but the government having “honed their playbook by increasing censorship, blocking websites, and issuing takedown orders to social media platforms”.
India enforced an internet shutdown 84 times, in terms of what was reported, but the report cites fears that the number could be higher because of the government’s failure to publicly release shutdown orders, in violation of the Supreme Court’s judgment. The technical challenges in monitoring, tracking and recording shutdowns likely means that “we do not have a full record of all disruptions”.
With the world’s largest biometric ID database, a pioneering digital payment system for daily transactions and a flagship space and satellite programme, India knows the power of connected technology and also knows how to disenfranchise its people.
But when trouble brews with political unrest or sectarian violence, authorities are quick to sever internet service to stem disinformation — cutting off millions of people who depend on the web for communication, information and business.
For authorities, internet shutdowns have “become the first tool in their toolkit”, said Indian online civil liberties activist Mishi Choudhary, an AFP report said.
Some blackouts last hours, others days. Some stretch for months.
‘Default policing measure’
India, the world’s largest democracy, with general elections due next year, is also a global leader in internet shutdowns, according to New York-based online freedom monitors Access Now.
The main reasons India gave for the shutdowns were protests and the need to prevent cheating during exams, according to an analysis of blackouts from 2020 to 2022 by the Internet Freedom Foundation.
The tactic helps the government shape its narrative “as no counter voices emerge”, said Choudhary, founder of the Software Freedom Law Centre, AFP reported.
But she said the authorities fail to understand “what the impact would be”.
AFP report said: Human Rights Watch argues internet shutdowns “disproportionately hurt” the poorest, who depend on the government’s online social support systems.
Nearly 121 million people were affected by shutdowns last year, HRW said in a report in June, AFP reported.
“In the age of ‘Digital India’, where the government has pushed to make internet fundamental to every aspect of life, the authorities instead use internet shutdowns as a default policing measure,” HRW’s Jayshree Bajoria said in the report.
‘Rumours and Disinformation’
The government says internet cuts curb disinformation by stemming rumours from spreading on social media or mobile messaging applications, AFP reported.
In August, authorities blocked the internet in parts of Haryana state — just north of the capital New Delhi — when at least six people were killed in sectarian conflict between Hindus and Muslims, violence exacerbated by posts online.
External Affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has dismissed the “big song and dance” about internet cuts.
“If you’ve reached the stage where you say an internet cut is more dangerous than the loss of human lives, then what can I say?” Jaishankar said in 2022.
But internet access advocate Tanmay Singh points out that disinformation still spreads offline.
“Your primary defence against misinformation is fact verification and fact checking,” said Singh, from the Delhi-based Internet Freedom Foundation.
“That primarily happens on the internet.”
In addition, India has lost more money in six months of 2023 from internet suspensions than it did in the whole of 2022, Business Standard reported, citing data from the global tracker Top10VPN.
In 2023, India lost $ 255.2 million by June. It had lost $184.3 million in 2022.
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