In 2022, there will be 187 internet outages worldwide. India alone has 84 cases.
More than half of these shutdowns were recorded in Kashmir, as India topped the Access Now list for the fifth consecutive year
Authorities shut down the Internet at least 187 times in 35 countries last year. This is the highest figure ever recorded in a year. India tops the global list with 84 shutdowns, of which 49 were recorded in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Those are the findings of a report released Tuesday by digital rights watchdog Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition, which said the government is using internet shutdowns as a “weapon of control and a shield of impunity.”
Dubbed the “biggest criminals”, India tops the watchdog’s list for the fifth consecutive year. However, this is the first time since 2017 that India has had less than 100 internet outages, according to the report.
“Authorities issued 16 consecutive three-day curfew-style closures in January and February 2022,” the report said. It was interrupted at least 49 times.
It added that about 80 percent of shutdowns in India were in the disputed Himalayan region in 2021, compared to 58 percent in 2022.
India and Pakistan, which control parts of Kashmir, claim full ownership of Kashmir. Decades of popular rebellion against the New Delhi government on the Indian side have seen one of the highest deployments of the world’s security forces in the region.
Since 2019, when India’s right-wing government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi abolished Indian-controlled cash.
