June 26, 2021

Internet shutdowns: a favourite tool of India’s ruling party

topic:	Democracy
located:	India
editor:	Tish Sanghera

It’s official - India’s ruling party loves internet shutdowns. In fact, if you live in a state where the local government is administered by the Prime Minister’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), you are 250 percent more likely to experience an internet shutdown, according to a new research by the University of Amsterdam.

India currently tops the chart globally for the highest number of internet shutdowns. Last year, access to the internet was halted 109 times, far more frequently than in Yemen, which experienced just six shutdowns and came in second.

Local governments in India often block access to the internet as a way of controlling potential violence among crowds, protest movements and during sensitive periods of unrest. 

While it is not just BJP-controlled states that have used internet blockages as a law enforcement measure, the research finds that the probability of an internet shutdown in a district administered by the BJP is 3 percent in any given month, compared to 0.8 percent in a non-BJP-run state. In South India, for example, where few states are controlled by the Modi-led party, citizens have seldom experienced any internet shutdowns, notes the report.

The new research supports what many Indians have experienced first hand since the BJP came to power in 2014 - that this administration has no qualms with suppressing internet freedom for its own political gain. 

During the early 2020 protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, a bill that would discriminate against Muslims and is a flagship policy of the right-wing hindu nationalist party, protesters experienced routine internet blackouts despite the fact the protests were largely peaceful. 

Earlier this year, farmers who went on a hunger strike in response to the central government’s new farm law reforms also faced disruption. "Internet shutdowns in India are used to thwart protests, hide human rights abuses, and suppress efforts to obtain increased political autonomy," said the University of Amsterdam report. 

Legal activists and rights campaigners have long been calling out the Indian government’s extreme use of indiscriminate internet blockades. Not only is restricting internet access being used as an instrument of state power, it can also have devastating economic and social impacts, too. Eight months after the New Delhi revoked Kashmir’s statehood, the Muslim-majority state finally had access to 3G internet restored. During this time, many businesses had shut down, schools were closed and online schooling was made impossible by the slow internet speeds. 

Information flows, during a global pandemic, were disrupted, thus impacting an already fragile health system. In total, India’s economy is estimated to have lost $2.8 billion in 2020 because of internet shutdowns. 

The frequency of India’s internet shutdowns means that people are getting used to them, and the police are more willing to use them, found the University of Amsterdam study. 

While the shutdowns are becoming more geographically precise, they are also lasting longer. In all, the researchers concluded, it is unlikely that officials will halt the practice anytime soon despite the large public outcries. 

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