According to Freedom House, the world is experiencing a global decline in Internet freedom for the tenth consecutive year. Despite having the second largest number of Internet subscribers in the world, India has experienced a rapid decline in Internet freedom in recent years. In 2020, India was reported to be one of the top five countries with the worst decline. It can, to a large extent, be explained by India’s increased number of Internet shutdowns imposed in the last five years. These shutdowns have surged in the country since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected in 2014.
In 2019, 121 of the 213 Internet shutdowns internationally were in India—by far the largest number of shutdowns of any country. To contextualise this, Venezuela had the second highest number of shutdowns in 2019 with just 12.
Many of the recent shutdowns in India were imposed amidst large-scale demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Further, the shutdowns were usually targeted in the conflict-affected region Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). In an attempt to stifle the protests that arose when the government revoked the semi-autonomous status of the region, the government imposed a shutdown which lasted 175 days between August 2019 and January 2020—making it the world’s longest shutdown ever recorded in a democracy.
WHAT ARE INTERNET SHUTDOWNS?
An Internet shutdown is an intentional disruption of digital communications leading to little or no access to the Internet. Shutdowns can take place nationally or target a certain region, city, neighbourhood, or specific parts of the population. By denying access to the Internet, states attempt to control the information being shared in the region. This restriction is often justified by states as a security measure necessary to ensure public safety, national security, or to stop the spread of misinformation and hate speech. These justifications can fall within article 34 of the Constitution of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This article provides states the right to cut off any private telecommunications that appear “dangerous to the security of the state or contrary to its laws, to public order or to decency”.
However, as Access Now has reported, these justifications are frequently used to impose shutdowns during anti-government protests, elections, and times of political instability to try to prevent citizens from sharing and accessing information. In India, nearly every second shutdown between 2012-2019 was reportedly imposed due to state violence and anti-government protests.
RAMIFICATIONS ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Internet connectivity is fundamental for people to fully exercise their freedom of expression, freedom of association, and their right to peaceful assembly. In 2012, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) affirmed that the “same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression”.
In denying people Internet connection in regions such as J&K in India, people are deprived of vital digital communication tools that enable them to keep contact with family or to report the state’s human rights abuses. For example, it was reported that local journalists were unable to report stories from within J&K to news outlets during the Internet shutdown.
Disrupting Internet connectivity constitutes serious violations of fundamental human rights recognised in articles 19-22 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
It has been argued that shutdowns can neither be justified by the necessity qualification recognised in ICCPR nor in consideration of the fundamental human rights principle of proportionality. Furthermore, shutdowns in India do not reduce levels of violent protests but instead increase the level of violence, thus having a negative impact on security and public safety. In 2016, UNHRC specifically condemned all measures that disrupt access to information online as a human rights violation.
RAMIFICATIONS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
UN Experts called the 175-day Internet shutdown in J&K as unjustified, disproportionate, and “a form of collective punishment on the people of Jammu and Kashmir”. Despite international pressure to end the Internet shutdown and the Supreme Court of India’s ruling the shutdown illegal in January 2020, Internet access is yet to be fully restored in the region. Only limited access to 2G networks has been restored, with a few local exceptions. India continued to impose further targeted Internet shutdowns across the country in 2020, mainly in the J&K region, despite the outbreak and continuing spread of Covid-19.
Internet shutdowns have seriously limited people’s ability to access information about the pandemic and health care services using digital tools, which is crucial for the enjoyment of the right to health. This is the case for millions of citizens that are exposed to the shutdowns in India. Doctors have reported that they do not have access to updated information on how to treat Covid-19, and contact tracing as a strategy to prevent the spread of the virus is nearly impossible to carry out.
Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called on India to end all shutdowns. In March, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urged all governments to end all Internet and telecommunication shutdowns and emphasised that “fact-based and relevant information on the disease and its spread and response must reach all people, without exception”.
Mattias holds a BA in Human Rights Studies at Lund University. He is currently pursuing an MA in International Administration and Global Governance at the University of Gothenburg and he is a National Network Administrator at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.