Bans, censorship, and firewalls are only some of the many ways in which countries use the internet as a tool to guide their international — and local — politics. There are other, more severe ways in which nations have at times rendered ineffective the internet’s potential of bringing in unbridled information to any person on the web.
India, for instance, kept the people of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in an extended internet shutdown for over a year following its decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution. The extended ban on the internet was said to have been done to quell any protests that could occur following the government’s highly controversial move. The shutdown helped stop the passage of information from Kashmir to the outside world, and vice versa.
It is important to note here that the Kashmir situation was not the first time the Indian government decided to shut down the internet in a region. In fact, the world’s largest democracy has also been the largest enforcer of internet shutdowns for the last four years. These shutdowns have often been employed in conflict areas during protests against the government. Recently, state governments in India have also made use of shutdowns during examinations for government jobs.
Via The Swaddle