India will impose by far the very best variety of web shutdowns on the earth in 2022, web advocacy watchdog Entry Now stated on Tuesday, because the nation topped the listing for the fifth successive 12 months.
Out of 187 web shutdowns recorded globally by Entry Now, 84 happened in India, together with 49 in Indian-administered Kashmir, the New York-based digital rights advocacy group stated in a report printed on Tuesday.
“Authorities disrupted web entry not less than 49 occasions in Kashmir as a result of political instability and violence, together with a string of 16 back-to-back orders for three-day-long curfew-style shutdowns in January and February 2022,” the watchdog report added. .
Kashmir has lengthy been a flashpoint between India and archrival Pakistan, which declare the area in full however rule solely components.
In August 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Get together authorities led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the autonomy of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, splitting it into two federally administered territories.
The federal government has since frequently imposed communications restrictions on the area on safety grounds, which rights teams have condemned and described as measures to quash dissent.
Militants have battled India’s rule in Kashmir for greater than three a long time. The South Asian nation blames Pakistan for stoking the revolt. Islamabad denies the claims.
Though India as soon as once more led the world in web shutdowns, 2022 marked the primary time since 2017 that there have been fewer than 100 shutdowns within the nation, the watchdog stated.
Ukraine was second on the listing, with the Russian army slicing entry to the web not less than 22 occasions after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 of final 12 months.
“Throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army minimize web entry not less than 22 occasions, partaking in cyberattacks and intentionally destroying telecommunications infrastructure,” the watchdog stated in its report.
Ukraine was adopted on the listing by Iran the place authorities imposed 18 web shutdowns in 2022 in response to demonstrations in opposition to the federal government.
Nationwide anti-government protests erupted in Iran final fall after the dying of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian lady Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 16 final 12 months. Amini was arrested in Tehran by the morality police for flouting the hijab guidelines, which require ladies to utterly cowl their hair and our bodies. She died whereas in custody.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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