In the Freedom Magazine series, we explore how freedom has evolved in politics, economics, digital and media over the past decade.
India has topped the list of countries in the world with internet bans for five consecutive years, with approximately 60% of all blackouts recorded globally between 2016 and 2022 occurring in India. Data shows that the ban caused more than $5.45 billion in lost economic value between 2019 and 2023 alone.Top 10 VPNs for Tech Companies.
Freedom in cyberspace depends on a freely accessible, functional, and affordable Internet. Freedom can be measured by the availability of mobile and broadband services, internet speed and access to websites and social media platforms. Reasons for state-mandated closures of internet space over the past decade have been national security and threats to public order. However, human rights groups argue that these closures not only violate free speech and human rights, but also violate court orders.
in the text, hinduism Looks at the progress of internet freedom over the past 10 years when the BJP-led NDA was in power at the Centre.
internet shutdown
Governments can either directly impose internet blocks on specific people or locations (absolute destruction of all internet-based communities) or indirectly impose internet speed limits. According to data collected by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), the Indian government shut down a total of 780 software between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2023. Instances increased from 6 in 2014 to 96 in 2023, an increase of 1500%. The highest number of internet shutdowns occurred in 2018 and 2020. There has been a surge in internet shutdowns during the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019, the repeal of Section 370 in 2019 and the introduction of the Farm Bill in 2021. Accounting for more than 70% of the total global economic losses in 2020. Data shows that India shut down the Internet for more than 7,000 hours in 2023, affecting nearly 590,000 people. The researchers added that the disruptions also violated press freedom and people’s right to hold peaceful protests.
Under the Indian Telegraph Act, Indian states and union territories can shut down the internet only in cases of “public emergency” or in the interest of “public safety”. However, the law does not define what constitutes an emergency or safety issue.Supreme Court of India, a landmark Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India The case reiterates that internet shutdowns violate the fundamental right to free speech and that indefinite shutdowns are unconstitutional. Additionally, courts have required governments to make shutdown orders public — a requirement that experts note in reports has not been well followed. Hindus.
From a regional perspective, the number of factory closures in Jammu and Kashmir was the highest in the past 12 years at 433; followed by Rajasthan, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The longest blackout of 2023 occurred in Manipur, where ethnic clashes broke out from May to December between the Meitei people, who mainly live in the Imphal Valley, and the Kuki-Zo tribal communities in the surrounding hills. Prior to this, Kashmir recorded its longest-ever internet shutdown (552 days) in 2019-20.
Photo Credit: The Hindu
As of February 15, Hisar, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Sirsa, Amba in Haryana Areas such as Ambala and Fatehabad are currently under active closure. As Punjab farmers protested in Delhi, the union government invoked the power of a British-era law to suspend mobile internet, the first time the government has issued such an order outside the national capital.
Photo Credit: The Hindu
In Jammu and Kashmir, the worst-affected districts include Pulwama, Anantnag, Srinagar and Shopiyan. Churachandpur, Bishnupar and Imphal West in Manipur have the highest number of internet ban cases. Activists pointed out that India failed the “three-part test” of imposing blackouts in Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur. Under international law, in order to block access to any content or take coercive measures that violate people’s fundamental rights, countries should check whether: the action is required by law; pursues a legitimate objective; and follows the standards of necessity and proportionality.
Most internet outages over the past decade have been concentrated in specific regions, cities and villages. However, a Human Rights Watch report noted that this “means an internet outage for the majority of the region’s population” as 96% of internet users use mobile devices to access the internet. Power outages deny people access to basic rights and disproportionately impact people from marginalized communities – including MNREGA workers and those receiving government subsidies.
In most cases, the internet is banned due to political instability, to quell protests and communal violence, and to prevent cheating in exams. For example, on September 8, 2018, Maharashtra blocked internet services in Pune amid protests over Maratha quota reservation. Analysis by the SFLC shows that in 2022, 41 of 75 closures were ordered on “terrorism” grounds, followed by cases of “community tension”. Global trends vary: protests are the most common reason for internet shutdowns, followed by information control and political instability.
Most disruptions are preemptive in response to protests. Precautionary closures have increased from 5 in 2014 to 81 in 2023. 2021 saw the highest number of preventive orders passed: including intentional disruptions in Jammu and Kashmir, mobile internet blackouts during farmer protests, and at least four incidents of blocking students from accessing the internet. cheating on a test.
Website blocked
According to SFLC, more than 55,000 websites were blocked between 2015 and 2022. The largest portion of reviews were conducted under Section 69A of the IT Act by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (responsible for 47% of requests) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The URL was blocked due to links to organizations banned under UAPA and content spreading suspected fake news (some related to the Indian Army and Jammu and Kashmir).Recently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ordered news media caravan Take down reports of Indian troops abusing, torturing and murdering civilians in Poonch district of Jammu.
On social media, nearly 30,000 social media URLs (including accounts and posts) were blocked between 2018 and 2022, with the majority of requests sent to X (formerly Twitter). “…it is necessary or expedient to do so in the interest of sovereignty and integrity, defense of India, security of the country, friendly relations with foreign countries or public order or for inciting a cognizable offense in connection with the above,” IT Minister Rajiv Chan De La Cerca said in a written response to Parliament.
The website was also blocked for two reasons. Websites ordered to be shut down by courts due to copyright infringement accounted for 46.8% of the total number of blocked websites. The remaining 1.91% of websites were blocked for promoting “obscene” content, child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and pornographic content.
A common reason for blocking websites is the escalating threat of cybercrime. India had more than 65,000 cases last year, compared to 5,693 in 2013. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the number of cases increased by nearly 434% between 2016 and 2022. Most were related to fraud, others were linked to sexual exploitation motives. In 2022, most of the complaints related to financial fraud came from Telangana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The data also shows conviction rates for identity theft, publishing sexually explicit material and cyberstalking remain below 30 per cent.
India and global trends
According to the latest report from Freedom House, global Internet freedom has declined for 13 consecutive years, and the online human rights environment has deteriorated in 29 countries. As a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “there is a certain basic understanding that government regulation of the Internet or Internet-based services must respect fundamental human rights standards,” Access Now’s Raman Chima tells us hinduism 2020.
India’s ranking has hovered around the same benchmark for the past three years. Compared to 2016 and 2017, when India scored 59 points, India’s score dropped to 50 points in 2023.