Restricting Internet access or shutting it down entirely – it’s part of the standard repertoire of the Indian authorities. The country now has the most internet shutdowns in the world. The reasons are often political in nature.
Pay for a meal online, send a WhatsApp message or be navigated by Google Maps. All of this was impossible for 30 million people in large parts of the Indian state of Rajasthan for a whole week at the end of February.
Because the exams for prospective teachers were running, the state government had simply cut the mobile Internet connection from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Before the start of the exam, parts of the exam, including the solution, had ended up on the Internet. The tests after leaks had already been canceled or postponed in previous years. The drastic measure, it was said, was intended to stop the spread of leaked documents and thus prevent fraud.
It’s not just about exams
Whether switching off the mobile network, throttling the Internet speed or temporarily blocking selected websites, all of this is referred to as Internet shutdowns. 2022 existed according to “Access Now” 187 cases worldwide in 35 countries. India tops the list with 84 cases, well ahead of Ukraine and Iran.
It’s not just about relatively harmless things like the exams in Rajasthan. Often there are political reasons. The government has repeatedly said that shutdowns are intended to prevent false information from being spread. It is about maintaining or restoring public order, another common justification.
Jammu and Kashmir in north-west India had 49 internet shutdowns in 2022, more than Ukraine and Iran combined.
Mostly as a means against riots and protests
Jammu and Kashmir in north-west India had 49 internet shutdowns in 2022, more than Ukraine and Iran combined. In 2019, the Hindu nationalist government of India revoked the region’s autonomy, and since then it has been administered practically from New Delhi. In order to prevent protests, violence and the spread of disinformation, it was said that the central government decided on a shutdown in August 2019.
The justification was widely criticized because the shutdown was accompanied by the arrests of politicians and critics of the Indian government. In total, the internet shutdown lasted 552 days after the end of autonomy, of which 175 days not only the mobile internet was shut down, but also local networks, cable television and landline telephony.
Turn off criticism
But not only in Jammu and Kashmir did the government resort to Internet shutdowns against the threat of unrest and protests. They have also been used in protests in 2019 and 2020 against an amendment to the citizenship law, which many Muslims saw as discriminatory, and in peasant protests in 2020 and 2021 against liberalization of agriculture.
Sometimes the Internet is not turned off at all, just the electricity, as was the case earlier this year when Indian students at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi wanted to watch a critical BBC documentary about India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In May, internet shutdowns were deployed primarily in Manipur. There was a conflict between two ethnic groups in the state in north-eastern India. The shutdown is still ongoing in some regions. Nearly 100 people have now died in the unrest.
In May, internet shutdowns were used primarily in the state of Manipur, where a violent ethnic conflict had broken out. The shutdown is still ongoing in some regions of Manipur.
worth billions more economical Damage
Since 2016, India has led the number of internet shutdowns worldwide, peaking in India in 2018 with 134 shutdowns. In 2022, shutdowns cost India $2.8 billion in economic damage, data from the Internet Freedom Foundation shows.
A study by the Internet and Mobile Association of India states that in 2022 nearly 760 million people will be using the Internet in India. Although that is only 52 percent of the Indian population, the number is growing rapidly. 96 percent of internet users in India rely on mobile internet, according to the Telecoms Regulatory Agency of India.
Online payments via QR code with mobile phones are widespread in India, so that during internet shutdowns it is often no longer possible to pay and some people are no longer able to work. In addition, poorer and disadvantaged people are particularly affected, since without internet access they often no longer have access to food rations and government social programs. Sensitive damage also occurs in health care and education.
Since the government of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party under Prime Minister Modi took power in 2014, the situation of press freedom has deteriorated.
Press freedom endangered
Indian politicians have always been accused of having an ambivalent relationship with press freedom, but the situation has worsened since Prime Minister Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party took power in 2014.
Although Modi is now emphasizing during the G20 presidency that India is the “mother of democracy,” the country only ranks 161 out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index. Last year, the organization saw the takeover of media houses in particular by Modi’s confidants and smear campaigns against government critics as part of a negative development.
Shutdowns also restrict freedom of information. Journalists can no longer report or have to rely on government exceptions. So people can’t get fact checks and rumors spread faster. And the Indian government is also using other restrictive means to intervene in the Internet. Since 2015, the authorities have blocked more than 55,000 websites and deleted more than 6,000 posts in social media in 2022 alone, and the trend is rising.
Legal situation in India
There are no studies that present Internet shutdowns as a tried and tested means of maintaining public order. Instead, a study by Jan Rydzak, former associate director of Stanford’s Center for Digital Policy, concludes that turning off the internet is counterproductive, especially during violent unrest. Shutdowns could even incite violence.
The legal situation in India regarding internet shutdowns is opaque. In 2020, for example, there was a ruling by the Constitutional Court that only allows them if they are “proportionate” and “necessary”. According to the Indian Constitutional Court, unannounced and unlimited shutdowns are also not permitted. However, this judgment has been repeatedly ignored in the past three years.