India leads the world with the maximum number of Internet shutdowns with as many as 121 instances this year itself, as reported by Freedom Law Centre’s ‘internetshutdowntracker’, a Delhi-based software company. This number was 70 in 2017. As per the report released Thursday, India’s internet freedom score is down two places to 43.
While Jammu and Kashmir recorded the highest number of Internet shutdowns with at least 36 documented incidents in 2018, the other states where the Internet was shut down often were Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana and Rajasthan.
The reasons behind shutdowns in India include preventing of riots, incidents of hate crime and even putting a check on cheating in examinations. Reports of arrests for online speech, including for content distributed on WhatsApp and Facebook, were also recorded.
The report, an annual study of how the government controls freedom of the internet, gives various instances, of which one is a video showing a child being kidnapped in Tamil Nadu. The video went viral on WhatsApp with a warning of kidnappers on the hunt. However, the video is originally an announcement against child kidnapping in Pakistan, stated the report.
Post Your Comments