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Soumik Dey
Soumik Dey

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Internet shutdowns on rise in India, grow 10-fold in 3 years

TURKEY-INTERNET/ Representational image | Reuters

Maximum in Jammu and Kashmir, followed by Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat

India is increasingly becoming dependent on internet bans to curb impacts of rumour-mongering and rising communal tensions. 

According to data from Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), a rights-based agency, incidents of shutting down the internet is growing, even as the government pushes for a digital India.

"What we have seen is that there is a rise in the number of internet shutdowns in a fairly liberal and democratic place like India. What earlier used to be two or three in a year have grown ten folds," said Mishi Choudhary, president and legal director of Delhi-based SFLC. "In last five years, India exercised internet shutdowns some 73 times. Of this, 31 internet shutdowns were implemented last year alone, and within four months there were 14 incidents of shutdowns this year." 

The SFLC data is based on an online platform, where users could report real-time incidents of internet shutdowns in their states. As per the data, the maximum number of internet shutdowns happened in Jammu and Kashmir (31 times in five years), followed by Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat (nine times in each of these states).

"Often, preventing rumours is the reason for clamping down the internet. However, in Gaurav Sureshbhai Byas versus State of Gujarat and a subsequent Special Leave petitions, these arguments against internet bans were dismissed by the Gujarat High Court," said Choudhary.

Incidents of internet shutdowns from Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar are also on the rise, the data showed. None of the four southern states, however, seemed to have ever resorted to internet shutdowns in last five years.

Speaking on the current practice, BJD MP Baijayant Jay Panda said the police in most states are extending provisions of the CrPC section 144, used to clamp curfew, for exercising these internet shutdowns. "In principle, I am against any blatant internet shutdowns. But in practice, I see that in the real world these measures need to be measured out and such standards or checks and balances simply do not exist now," he said, indicating that the power to shutdown internet in the country should not be left just with the police.

"When the government is talking of digital India, a rise in internet shutdowns goes against the idea promoted by the prime minister," said Panda. "A rational regime is required for imposing objective interventions for any internet shutdowns anywhere in the country," he added, saying such shutdowns impact local economy and personal freedom. The legislator from Kendrapara in Odisha had spoken on the issue of internet shutdowns in his own constituency recently when the Parliament was in session. 

"Should the laws of the real world be extended to the digital one?" asked Abhinandan Sekhri, CEO of internet startup Newslaundry. 

Speaking for rural women entrepreneurs, Sairee Chahal, CEO of SHEROES, a career destination startup for women, said, "In the northeast, where the internet shutdowns could be prolonged, it disrupts the idea that we want to give these women—about  coming on the same platform with everyone. Maybe, when such shutdowns are done, there is a need for proper information dissemination and transparency," she said. Many women from rural India are now eyeing a pie of the online boom and have started relying on the power of the internet for reaching out to the world, including selling various products. 

According to estimates by US-based think tank Brookings India, the impact of the internet shutdowns have led to a loss of about $968-million for India in the previous fiscal.

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Topics : #internet | #Startup

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