What happens when your government cuts access to the Internet?

A report by AccessNow shows that there were up to 80 prolonged Internet service outages around the world caused by governments between January and May 2023, a very worrying number that shows how more and more countries are opting for this method to try to resolve their internal conflicts.

Highly prominent among these governments is India’s, which with 84 service cuts in 2022 exceeded the combined sum of the other countries combined. The government of Narendra Modi sees cutting Internet access as a way to deal with social unrest, notably in Kashmir.

Cutting a region’s Internet connection as a response to conflict involves huge economic collateral damage. It is an abuse of power that interrupts businesses’ ability to communicate, to sell or for many other functions that, nowadays, are practically essential.

In the case of India, the policy is paradoxical, given its government’s efforts toward inclusion and the digital transformation of the country: how is the most populous country in the world going to develop a digital economy when its government systematically deprives internet access to some of its territories as a reaction to any internal problem? Some estimates put the cost to businesses in areas without access in the billions of dollars, and tell of all kinds of cases in which the…