Censorship, Policing and Surveillance of Internet in India
Two months ago, India signed a G7 "2021 Open Societies Statement" about commitment to human rights, Democracy, freedom of expression and other wonderful things. The statement referred to "politically motivated internet shutdowns" as one of the threats to freedom and Democracy. India today is the among the most Internet censored country in the world. Blocking of domains, curbing of free speech on social media, jailing people for criticizing Govt & ruling party on internet, full fledged internet shutdowns in states & cities at various times - all these things are now usual affair in India. India is now ruled by a totalitarian Govt, an elected dictatorship which is trying to control the totality of things - institutions, media, culture, education and public perception. Internet control is essential to controlling public perception and managing the thought process of people. A free internet is an enemy of dictatorial government as can be seen in nations like China and North Korea.
Where we are and how we got here? Before looking into these questions, lets look at our past. India enjoyed a fairly liberal and open internet access. Broadband revolution came pretty late in India. I recall, getting my first Broadband connection in 2006. The wireline broadband speed on ADSL connection i got those days was 256 kbps which seemed great in those days. Everything was accessible in those days - Torrent sites, piracy sites, porn sites, all kinds of file sharing sites etc. In terms of Social media, Facebook & Orkut were quite famous around 2008-09 while Twitter and other social media platforms came late to the scene in terms of popularity. In early days, it would be considered absurd that Government can force a social media company to shut down a particular account. Social media in early days was mostly self regulated and Government did very little to politically interfere in their operations.
By 2011-12, all Social media platforms were quite popular as Indians started enthusiastically jumping on Social media bandwagon. I created my Twitter account 10 years ago in 2011. Regarding politics, users could write anything on Facebook & Twitter those days without any fear of government censorship or penal action by police (its a different matter that 140 characters limit on twitter was great inconvenience). There was no fear of invisible boogeyman reading your postings and keeping tabs on your political views.
In 2012, i saw this messaging for first time when trying to open popular torrent sites - "Your requested URL has been blocked as per the directions received from Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. Please contact administrator for more information." The blocking of sites was not initiated by political government but rather by Indian courts through John Doe orders. John Doe orders aka Ashok Kumar orders as called in India are orders passed against nameless unidentified defendants. In regard to blocking of web domains, these ex parte orders are based on minimal standard of evidence. The very first John Doe orders against torrent sites were a result of copyright action against a popular Indian Bollywood song "Kolaveri". The ISPs further overreached by blocking whole torrent sites rather than just blocking URLs of copyright dispute.
But political government wasn't interested in controlling and policing of internet in those days. Internet freedom advocates and consumers of ISPs approached Indian courts to get blocking of torrent sites reversed (read 1). As political Govt wasn't interested in policing the internet, why should courts make a fuzz about piracy? In a 3rd world country like India where majority of population is in poverty, law enforcement is overburdened and overstretched and courts having backlog of millions of pending cases, prosecuting people for piracy was hardly on the priority scale of the government.
BJP comes to power in 2014 - Radical change in Government policy on Internet - Internet censorship begins by curing Indians of moral depravity - Ban of Pornographic sites in India - More John Doe orders - Govt executive orders to ban thousands of porn sites, file sharing sites, cloud storage and torrent URLs
In 2015, the Modi BJP Govt issued an executive order through Department of Telecom, to ban hundreds of Porn sites and asking all ISPs to block user access to these sites. The move was widely condemned by Internet activists, criticizing it as an attempt to control & censure internet. After backlash by the people, Govt was forced to take a step back by claiming that its not interested in moral policing of the internet. But Supreme Court jumped in with more John Doe Orders in support of Govt on blocking pornography.
A page from Executive order on Internet Pornography citing morality as the pretext of blocking URLs.
Chief Justice Dipak Misra, a controversial Judge who has been seen as supporting ruling BJP Govt on several policies, issued orders for blanket ban of pornographic sites in India. Hearing a petition by an advocate who claimed that violence against women & children is majorly influenced by pornography, Supreme Court also opined that pornography is obscene and obscenity is linked to misogynism, perversion, sadism and voyeurism. Banning of pornographic material also resulted in banning of many cloud storage and torrent sites which were not specifically used for porn content but had that content hosted on them somewhere. On other hand, more John Doe orders came from various courts regarding piracy and all kinds of torrent sites, cloud storage and file sharing sites were blocked.
By 2019, thousands of URLs were blocked in India and the list keeps on growing every day. Internet freedom advocacy groups and activists had no standing in front of Govt which was determined to control the internet. While internet freedom advocacy groups were quick to realize that arbitrary blocking of websites was just the beginning of internet censorship, most people did not take earlier days of censorship with any seriousness. Internet censorship in India began as a noble cause. Pornography which pollutes and corrupts minds of people, objectifies
and degrades women, and a symptom of broader ailment of society was
banned in India. People never imagined that censorship & surveillance will expand to everywhere in near future - Social media websites Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc, Mobile Apps, chat clients & all kinds of internet platforms.
Silencing Political opposition - Blocking social media accounts of Government critics - BJP's friendly relationship with social media companies like Facebook - Pro BJP elements like Ankhi Das in regional offices of Facebook - Social media companies wanted a good business relationship with ruling Govt as India a big market to tap revenue
PM Modi with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (left), FB policy director for India Ankhi Das (right) and FB VP for global partnerships Marne Levine (Photo-Facebook)
In early days of BJP regime, Modi Govt established a mutually beneficial relationship with Big Tech companies. India, with 1.4 Billion population, is rapidly growing market for Big Tech companies to harness revenues (read 1, 2 & 3). But to harness those revenues, companies need to enjoy a good relationship with dictatorial Government. Modi, BJP ministers & politicians, party workers, Modi Govt bureaucrats etc, all came aboard social media platforms. Capturing social media space was an important strategy of Modi Govt and Facebook assisted them in doing that as it opened doors of new business opportunities in India . 2013-2014 was also the time when BJP IT cell started to establish its grounds on Facebook and other social media (more on this later).
The Facebook scandal in India was about unethical and illegal relationship of Facebook with Modi Government. Ankhi Das, the regional Director of Facebook in India had a close relationship with Modi BJP regime. While Facebook was fast in blocking accounts of Modi regime's critics, the accounts of hatemongers right wing Hindu extremists were allowed to operate freely. Member's of Modi's BJP party and Hindutva fanatics promoted anti-Muslim communal violence on Facebook. The content was internally flagged in Facebook for action but Ankhi Das opined that punishing BJP members for violations would damage the company’s business prospects in the country (read 1 & 2).
Even before the Ankhi Das Facebook scandal came to light, there was a recognizable pattern of Facebook bias against journalists and news agencies which posted content critical of government. The accounts of journalists were randomly locked and the news stories against ruling BJP politicians were not promoted. Caravan news agency did an investigative news story on Jay Shah, son of India's home minister Amit Shah and tried to promote on facebook for boosting viewership. But facebook stalled the promotion for dubious reasons.
The Kashmir Experiment - Ground Zero of total Internet Blockade - Internet completely suspended in Indian State of Kashmir for almost a year - More than 10 million people without internet - The great internet firewall of India
Kashmir situation deserved to be analyzed in some detail because its the ground zero of the most draconian internet censorship in India & probably the entire world. While Modi Govt started censorship since it came to power, the pinnacle of censorship was complete Internet suspension in Indian state of Kashmir. With Kashmir internet suspension, Modi Govt got emboldened with the belief that it can push internet policing and censorship to any limit.
In 2019, shortly after BJP was reelected with parliamentary majority in general elections, Modi Govt took one of the most audacious step - abrogation of article 370 of Indian constitution. India's Kashmir state which enjoyed a certain autonomy under article 370 of constitution was restructured overnight - the stateship of region was extinguished, the region was divided and converted into union territory, meaning both regions will be directly administered by central government in New Delhi. Regional and local politicians, activists, journalists etc were arrested and held without any trial under draconian PSA law.
The decision of abrogation of article 370 was taken without any local political support and the approval of Kashmir people. It was another of "my way or the highway" style of political decisions of Modi. Due to illegality and unpopularity of decision, the state of Kashmir was converted into world's largest open prison with blockade of more than 10 millions people to shut down all public protests, political opposition and prevent possible mass insurgency. Internet was completely suspended, all Mobile phones & landlines were suspended, all interstate trade & commerce was suspended, national curfew was imposed, shops, businesses, schools, colleges, institutions - everything was shutdown. Around 800,000 Indian military, paramilitary policy and state police was tasked to enforce national shutdown. Basically people were locked inside their own homes without any communication.
Even in states like China, the internet is not suspended at such a large scale. China has banned many sites including Social media companies like Facebook & Twitter. But there is Internet across China, albeit under state surveillance system which censures political dissent in China. In Kashmir, Modi Govt completely shutdown the internet. As if by stroke of a pen, Kashmir was taken back by 25 years, a time when there was no internet in India. Internet Ban in Kashmir lasted almost a year. Internet was reopened in phased manner and after intervention from Supreme Court.
According to a report, American Tech giant Cisco is helping Indian Government to implement Internet censorship in Kashmir but Cisco has officially denied it.
If the complete internet ban was not cruel enough, there was also the mockery of restoration of internet in Kashmir. After various petitions were filed in Indian Supreme Court regarding Kashmir internet ban, SC ruled that internet is a fundamental right as its connected to freedom of speech & expression. But instead of ordering Modi Govt to lift internet ban in Kashmir, SC only requested Modi Govt to review the decision of internet ban in Kashmir. So the great observations by Supreme court that internet is a fundamental right amounted to nothing.
In its review to restore internet service in Kashmir state (now two separate union territories after abrogation of article 370), Modi Govt came up with various lists of URLs that can be allowed to be accessed in Kashmir. This kind of censorship is to the level of North Korea where only specific regime offices and regime personnel are allowed to use internet in a very limited way. After nearly 6 months of complete internet ban, Modi Govt issued the first list of 153 URLs that will be allowed in Kashmir. Rest of entire cyberspace was completely blocked. The list of URLs included some banking web domains and government institution portals etc. As a token of relief, Modi Govt added few more URLs to the list of websites that can be accessed in Kashmir. In a dictatorship like China where Govt has a list of websites which are banned in country, in Indian state of Kashmir, it was the opposite. The Government gave a list websites that people can access, rest of the cyberspace was completely banned. Govt created internet firewall which was difficult to go around. The VPNs used to mask internet traffic were also banned in Kashmir.
Another mockery in restoration of internet services in Kashmir was Bandwidth throttling. The internet is useless if the Government chokes all the bandwidth. The mobile broadband was limited to 2G connectivity with speed of merely around 100 Kbps which made internet practically useless. While the world is moving towards 4G and 5G mobile broadband, the Government forced people in Kashmir to use 2G connectivity. An unfortunate aspect of atrocities in Kashmir was indifference of people in rest of India towards things happening in Kashmir. Blinded by toxic form of nationalism, the people in rest of India did not care about human rights violations in Kashmir. But many observers warned at that time - what Modi regime is doing in Kashmir today, it will do same things in rest of India tomorrow.
Protests against new Citizenship Act and new Farm laws - Large scale internet shutdowns in Indian cities & states - Random, arbitrary and senseless blocking of internet across several regions
Mass public protests and million man marches are regular affair in India as people hit the streets against unpopular and illegal policies of Modi government. There are mass protests on issues of austerity, privatization, price rise and policies like new citizenship laws (CAA), new farm laws, abrogation of Article 370 of Indian constitution etc. While Police is used for suppression of public protests on the streets, the suppression of public opinion and people's voices is also done on internet and social media platforms. Accounts of activists, independent journalists, Government critics are regularly suspended by social media companies on orders of Government.
Accounts temporarily suspended on orders of Government.
On several occasions, the internet is shutdown completely in states & cities to suppress people's voices. In 2020, India saw the highest number of internet shutdowns anywhere in the world. The worst shutdowns came in wake of protests against new citizenship law and new farm laws. The longest internet shutdown in India was in state of Kashmir in wake of abrogation of article 370. Internet shutdowns are implemented arbitrarily without any proper legal procedures. While in developed nations, suspension of internet communications is a highly delicate matter and Govt cannot shutdown internet without urgent reason of national security. In India, any public protests can be declared as a threat to national security and leads to internet shutdown.
More than 400 Internet shutdowns in last 4 years (source)
Yearwise data on internet shutdowns (source)
The process of internet shutdown is also on flimsy legal grounds. The internet shutdown is such a casual business in India that state governments simply issue circulars to ISPs to suspend internet for prescribed period of time. Internet which is considered life and blood of today's economy and social life is so casually shutdown whenever Government pleases to do so with minimal reasoning. There are no court orders or judicial process that examines the basis of implementing shutdown. Not just for the reasons of national security (which is also on shady reasoning), internet is suspended across states (read 1, 2, 3 & 4) in India for the flimsiest reasons like stopping cheating in examinations.
New IT rules of 2021 - An open threat to social media companies - Either become subservient to Government or pack up & leave the country - Targeting of Digital news agencies like 'The Wire' and 'The News Minute' - New IT regulations will give unprecedented control of government over internet - Harassment & intimidation of local employees of Twitter - India one step away from banning social media companies and then only few steps away from Chinese style internet censorship
Regulation of social media companies is essential. These regulations should entail things like protection of people's privacy, safeguarding free speech, fair business practices, curbing extremism & misinformation and various other things. Right to privacy is among the central part of regulatory reforms - Social media companies should be stopped from misusing user data. Misuse of data can just be about selling users data to eCommerce companies which use it for better marketing of their products and advertisements. But there can be much more serious misuse of data to identify voter patterns, implement social engineering and run election interference - all these things undermines Democracy. Other important regulatory reform includes curbing of religious extremism, anti-science propaganda & misinformation (like recent anti-vaccine movement), illegal things like child pornography, online bullying and harassment. These kind of progressive reforms are currently being debated and implemented in Europe and North America.
But Internet laws in authoritarian states have little to do with actually reforming regulatory process of internet in any constructive way. The main purpose of internet laws in dictatorial states is about crushing political dissent & criticism of government, intimidating social media companies as well as users on these platforms and censoring any content that government deems unfavorable to its interests. The goal of new internet laws is not really regulating social media companies but actually regulating public opinion. In age of internet, controlling Television media & newspapers is not enough for dictatorial regimes. A sizeable population is on social media platforms and thus controlling these platforms is also essential. Its also unfortunate that social media companies are pragmatically adjusting in meeting the illegal demands of dictatorial regimes. This is because they're prioritizing their commercial profitability over their ethics.
The relationship between Tech companies and Indian Govt has similarities with Tech companies operations in dictatorships like Russia, China, Turkey etc. Google shutdown its operations in China due to Chinese censorship but in recent years, its planning to re-enter China with business friendly relationship with Chinese Govt. There have been reports about Google's plans to create custom search engine for China which will censor content as per the conditions of Chinese Govt. In Russia, the social media companies are not outright banned but they are made to operate under strict purview of Russian laws which directs surveillance and censorship of Russian internet users (read 1, 2 & 3). Like Russia, Turkey has created internet laws that gives overreaching power to Turkish government over these companies. India's new Internet laws to regulate social media companies are very similar to those of Russia and Turkey.
Manish Maheshwari, managing Director of Twitter in India is under Police investigations. Twitter has said its employees safety is threatened in India and facing intimidation by Police.
Modi's BJP in 2014, started with friendly relationship with social media companies but that relationship started to turn sour over several issues including the new IT rules/internet laws and threats by Modi regime to make companies in compliance with these internet laws. Among the provisions of new internet laws is government mandate for social media companies to trace the point of origin of every message. This will violate the privacy of users and undermine the encryption basis of Whatsapp platform. The Government also wants strict & timely compliance of content removal from social media platforms. Any content which Govt deems inappropriate must be removed by the companies within 36 hours and action should be taken against publisher of the content.
Social media companies are also ordered to appoint compliance, nodal and grievance officers who will give regular reports to government about the company's legal compliance with India's internet laws. These officers will practically function like private commissars of Government tasked to moderate social media platforms according to wishes of government. These compliance/grievance officers will work under the fear of government knowing that any content on their platform that can potentially upset the government, will imperil their personal safety. These officers of companies will bear the brunt of Govt & law enforcement agencies if the companies don't function according to Government's liking.
On face value, Modi government claims that new internet laws are created to stop fake news, misinformation and curbing internet crimes. But this is a great irony considering that Modi's right wing BJP Party itself runs troll farms that abuse & harass Govt critics on social media, and peddle all kind of misinformation and fake news on internet. A report of United Nations Special Rapporteurs on India's new Internet Laws has highlighted the scope of potential abuse of these laws in curbing freedom of expression and violation of human rights. Another aspect of new internet laws is putting a leash on digital news agencies. Most of the newspapers and Television news media in India is under the control of Modi Govt which stifles facts and reporting of stories critical to Government. In fact, most of the news channels in India are like Fox News and Infowars, spreading propaganda, conspiracy theories, fiction and vile nonsense.
Modi's favorite news anchor and owner of Republic TV, Arnab Goswami is like Alex Jones of India, famous for his conspiracy theories, ultra right propaganda and wild rants on national TV
In last decade, several self financing/subscription based digital news agencies have emerged which provide better news services in terms of factual reports on Indian national affairs. These news platforms operate exclusively on internet which makes them somewhat out of reach of dictatorial government. New internet laws will put these news agencies in shackles of Government. The government can moderate the content of these news agencies and force them to remove any news content which Govt considers as 'false or misleading'. The definition of 'false & misleading' will be interpreted by the Government and given the dictatorial nature of it, its obvious how govt will interpret anything critical about it.
Digital news agencies have challenged the new Internet laws in High Courts.
Currently, new internet laws are challenged in Courts by various parties including digital news agencies, Press Trust of India, Social media companies and other affected parties. There govt is putting immense pressure to tame social media companies. For companies, there's a double whammy downside of going against the government. First, the companies don't wanna work in hostile environment by confronting a dictatorial govt and second, companies don't wanna jeopardize their commercial profitability. Its possible that war between companies and govt can escalate and they may have to shutdown their operations in India. If that happens, this will bring India close to the level of China's internet censorship.
More aspects of Internet Policing - Government Trolls and Bots factories - Stalking, bullying & harassment of activists, journalists, opposition politicians & Govt critics on social media - Pegasus Spygate - Use of cyberweapons for illegal surveillance of Journalists, activists, rival politicians and all kinds of persons of interests
The Policing of internet has two aspects. One is a legal way - that is creating new internet laws for censorship and penalization of Tech companies and people who don't adhere to Govt rules. The second way is a illegal and unwritten unacknowledged form of policing. Since India is not a full fledged dictatorship like China, the internet laws don't go far enough in controlling the cyber space. To go further, Modi regime is exercising more radical and illegal paths. Apart from controlling the public opinion, another aspect of internet control in dictatorships is spying and surveillance of people.
The recent story of Pegasus spygate is a prime example of illegal form of internet policing by Modi regime. Modi regime bought cyberweapons from Israeli company NSO that are used to hack into smartphones of targeted people. Personal data of targeted people is discreetly seized by hijackers and phones are converted into snooping devices. This hacking is used by Modi regime to target rival politicians, journalists, activists, businessmen and all types of persons of interest. In case of journalists, the reporters doing investigative journalism to uncover Government scandals are the targets. The activists which are critical of government policy are in the same league. More disturbing part is hacking of phones of opposition politicians, heads of central institutions and Supreme Court judges. And the extent of hacking itself is astonishing. Nobody knows the exact number of people on hacking list but it possibly runs into hundreds.
Among the Pegasus hacking targets (clockwise from top left) - CBI chief Alok Verma, Supreme Court judge Arun Mishra, Chief of news Agency The Wire, Siddharth Varadrajan, Central election commissioner Ashok Lavasa
To give some idea of extent of Pegasus use in India. Former chief of CBI (India's FBI) Alok Verma & members of his family were targeted. Alok Verma was dismissed in the middle of the night and its rumored that he was looking into Government corruption in Defense deal of fighter Jets purchase. Ashok Lavasa, India's Central Election commissioner was a target. Lavasa in 2019 said that Modi's ruling BJP party is violating election rules. A women and his family was targeted. This was no ordinary case. The women was an accuser of sexual harassment complaint against sitting Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi. Its well known that Gogoi gave various judgements in favor of Modi regime and supported Modi on many controversial policies.
On political front, opposition politicians like Rahul Gandhi (INC leader), Abhisek Banerjee (TMC parliamentarian) and several of their staff members were Pegasus targets. Journalist Sushant Singh working on investigative reports on India's Defense deal of Rafale Jets, Siddharth Varadrajan (chief of The Wire news agency) & many of his colleagues who have done investigative & critical news stories about Modi government are also on the list. Another disturbing part of Pegasus hacking is targeting of social activists and possibility of planting evidence. Its well known that many social activists have become political prisoners in India as government has put them in jail on false & frivolous cases of terrorism and sedition. Recently it has been found that evidences have been planted in the digital devices of activists to frame them. It won't be far fetched to think that government can plant evidences like suspicious emails, documents or photographs on the devices of people by hacking them.
Its not possible to give full insight into targets of Pegasus hacking. The list of people is too long and a lot remains unknown about the Government's motives of hacking all these people. It should also be clarified that Pegasus hacking is not actually an operation of Indian Government. This hacking is an illegal "off the books" operation run by Modi and home minister Amit Shah. I don't think that hacking of rival politicians and Supreme Court judges will be sanctioned by any investigating agency like NIA, CBI, RAW or IB because that would be highly illegal. But common denominator of all Pegasus hacking targets is that its an exercise to consolidate political power and control. By silencing investigative journalism and whistleblowers, Govt can coverup its scandals & corruption. Personal secrets of judges, big businessmen and senior bureaucrats can be used to blackmail and subdue them. The potential of misusing surveillance is unlimited and is an indispensable tool for political leverage.
On front on social media, while Government is silencing political dissent and people's voices, government is also working to fill the social media vacuum with its own propaganda and influence. People have heard about Russian Trolls that meddle in American affairs. In India, we have BJP IT Cell which has Troll farms and Bots among various other operations. Officially, BJP IT cell is a platform to promote party ideology and messaging of PM Modi but underlying this is a sophisticated network responsible for peddling of fake news, communal hatred, misinformation and harassment of government critics. BJP trolls stalk and bully government critics on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Unfortunately, social media companies don't act against these trolls and bots knowing that they are extension of political government.
Misinformation peddling by Amit Malviya, head of BJP's IT Cell. Context of above photo explained here.
Political analyst Swati Chaturvedi, interestingly also on the Pegasus hacking list, has researched on BJP's IT cell and documented its structure and operations in her book 'I am a Troll'. BJP IT Cell is the biggest peddler of fake news, communal hatred and disinformation on internet in India. The troll and bot accounts are used to promote BJP Party line - from communal hatred to personal attacks on Government critics. Trending of hashtags, spamming government critics with barrage of insults & obscenities and mass promotion of fake news are some of the routine operations of BJP IT cell. Most common targets of personal attacks by trolls are Government critics like liberals, civil society activists, secularists, academicians, independent journalists etc. The goal of Troll Army is simple - to drown out and suppress the voices which are to the disliking and unfavorable to government. The man responsible for creation of BJP IT Cell in 2007 now describes it as a Frankenstein Monster.
Police action and criminal cases filed by government against critics on internet - Arresting people for making critical comments against ruling political parties & big politicians - From defamation charges to invoking NSA, government using all tools to crush its critics
Before new internet laws, a favorite weapon of government was section 66A of Information Technology Act. This provision penalized anyone posting inappropriate content on internet with imprisonment of three years. The definition of inappropriate content was vague and far reaching, and so could be applied to anyone whom govt dislikes. The section 66A was declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court because it violated freedom of expression and it was abused by the govt against people. Supreme court struck down section 66A but govt comes up new laws that violate freedom of expression on internet. The intentions of govt is clear - unwavering effort to suppress freedom of expression.
Social activist and Journalist in Manipur were arrested under National Security Act for making a sarcastic Facebook comment against ruling party BJP.
This is a story of Manipur Journalist which gives an idea how government suppresses free speech on internet and instill fear in people. Politicians of BJP ruling party
promote cow urine as a cure for Covid-19 (read 1 & 2). Journalist Keshorchandra made a sarcastic
comment about this on Facebook. This prompted his arrest and indicting him under
anti-terror law NSA (National security Act). He was jailed for weeks
without any conviction or bail. Finally he was acquitted after his
petition in High court. Such kind of dictatorial behavior is common in India to
intimidate and scare people. Govt is conveying the message that Police may knock on
your door if you write something on internet that upsets ruling party and
government. Another problem in India is structurally weak and clogged Justice system. The legal process itself is a punishment in India's justice system where there are long delays in Court hearings, callous attitude of police, hellish prison system and also judiciary which tends to side with the executive much of the time. Its actually a ploy of govt to throw people in the dungeons of India's justice system to punish them.
While the Modi BJP regime is most active in policing the internet and intimidating its critics, unfortunately state governments of other political parties have also abused their power in suppression of free speech on internet. State governments of political parties like CPI, TMC, Shiv Sena etc have also filed cases against people for posting messages on internet which are not to the liking of these parties.
Social impact of internet censorship - Enslavement and dumbing down of society - A basic characteristic of dictatorship is that it isolates its people from rest of the world
Internet is life and blood of today's economy. Internet is not just not social media, internet is a vast system which runs the world. Commerce, finance, businesses, Education, logistics etc - everything runs on internet these days. Its highly foolish for a government to suspend internet just to curb public protests. The economic cost of internet suspension is immense and impossible to quantify but some estimates put India's economic losses to Rs 20,000 crore ($2.8 Billion) in 2020.
But apart from economic losses, there is also a tremendous human and social impact of internet shutdown which cannot be measured. Kashmir is unfortunately an interesting case study of sociological impact of internet shutdown. Imagine waking up one day and realizing the internet is shutdown. Not just, social media, but a complete suspension. Your Whatsapp, Facebook and other channels of online communication are gone. If you are a student, you can't use internet for academic use. If you are a journalist, you can't do any news reporting. If you are an Uber driver, you can't work without your company's mobile app connectivity. If you are a businessmen, you can't run your business without internet connectivity. But this is least of your worries. Soon you will find out that you are disconnected from your social circle. Your friends, associates, family, colleagues etc, all the social connections you built throughout the years have all vanished. The situation in Kashmir was actually much worse because Mobile communication was also suspended and total national curfew was imposed.
In 24 hours, you will go crazy. Now you can think that its just a matter of one day and you can take a rest from social life. But imagine, that same scenario repeats the next day and day after that, and some days later you begin to realize that it may never end - your life as you knew it is gone forever. Kashmir internet blockade lasted for almost a year and first 2 months of blockade was complete suspension of everything. Can you live for such time in shutdown? Your social, personal and professional life will be destroyed. Its unsurprising that Kashmir is going through its worst phase of mental health crisis (read 1, 2).
The problem is not limited to Kashmir, the internet shutdowns are happening across Indian cities & states, although for short duration only. But its enough for people across India to get a taste of internet shutdown experienced by people in Kashmir.
Lawyers fighting against Internet suspension in Assam. The High Court finally ordered to revoke the internet ban.
Another purpose of internet policing is social conditioning of population. The present totalitarian government is creating boundaries on internet by restricting free flow of information, freedom of expression and political discussions. A political cartoon or a sarcastic comment by a person on social media can land him in jail. By punishing government critics on internet, govt is instilling fear in the minds of population to confine them within the defined internet boundaries. This is the dumbing down strategy of dictatorial governments by making people ignorant, fearful and obedient slaves. The effect of social conditioning and dumbing down of population will be disastrous for a Democratic nation. Its not surprising that India has transformed from a liberal Democracy into a religious populist dictatorship. The young generation accustomed to censorship and policing has stopped thinking rationally. Now they chase after religion, pseudo-nationalism, cultism (Modi has Trump like personality cult) and driven by senseless rage towards minorities, liberals and secularists.
A basic characteristic of dictatorship is that it isolates its people from rest of the world. Rational voices of people and factual reality of country is suppressed while govt propaganda is projected as the reality. The goal of dictatorships is to hide the failures of the state and projecting state as shining model of prosperity and development. India is becoming a failed state under Modi's rule but a false image of national prosperity is created to fool people inside India and abroad.
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