Concept List: Internet Shutdowns in Kashmir
Sally Farhat & Yara Yatim
Mohan, P. (2020, 3 March). How the internet shutdown in Kashmir is splintering India’s democracy. Fast Company.
Murthy, L. & Seshu, G. (2019, 26 October). Silence in the Valley: Kashmiri Media After the Abrogation of Article 370. Engage. 54(43).
Index. (17 June, 2020). Life under lockdown: a Kashmiri journalist. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0306422020935807
In 2019, Kashmir witnessed a series of internet shutdowns that lasted for months each. These shutdowns happened simultaneously with the protests in the country. The government claims that the blockages aim to decrease the spread of false information and control the movements. The 121 shutdowns in 2019 (increase of 10% in comparison to previous years) made India rank low on the Economist’s democracy index.
The situation was described by Murthy and Seshu (2019) as a silence in the valley. People lost the ability to connect with their families and friends. Journalists were chased and prevented from revealing the real stories. This also applied for independent magazines, stations and advertising companies. Some journalists also had to move their offices to Delhi and in most cases lost their revenues. Moreover, the police would chase any individual that gets reported for sharing sensitive topics (Example: Censorship on WhatsApp).
According to Jan Rydzak, the internet shutdowns allow the government to control the narrative and avoid having any disruption (Mohan, 2020). This way, the government believes it can keep the protests under control.
Nonetheless, research has shown that Communication shutdowns, have resulted in increasing unrest. According to Rydzak, lack of internet access increase violence in protests (Mohan, 2020). Additionally, Rydzak explains that internet shutdowns also harm governments through decreasing the amount of information they can receive about the movement and increasing the spread of fake news or misinformation. The internet shutdowns also harm the economy and businesses. The sum of all these effects result in “the erosion of democracy” (Mohan, 2020).
The most problematic aspect of these blockages, as Rydzak explains, is that people got used to them and thus, normalized this experience. Normalizing means a person is accepting it, even though they normally would find it completely unacceptable (Mohan, 2020).
To respond to the continuous shutdowns however, activists have resorted to alternative communication tools to get their messages across or just communicate with others. these tools were chosen according to the type of shutdown Kashmir was witnessing. A complete blackout is harder to circumvent- it means people should redefine the means they communicate and resort to local ways of communicating. A partial shutdown, meaning a control on some traffic/applications…, could be navigated through using a VPN, which is usually distributed through a file-sharing application that doesn’t require connection, or mesh networks, which connects devices to one another on a local level without using internet. The limitations of these two aspects is that they can only share to an audience in a close proximity. In that sense, the people that were the most affected by the shutdown were those with limited financial resources who cannot but VPNs subscriptions (Mohan, 2020).
Impact of internet shutdown on COVID-19:
As reported by Bilal Hussain (Index, 2020), a journalist in Kashmir, journalists who covered COVID-19 on social media were convicted or charged. The government does this to make sure that it controls the narrative on COVID-19. This has led to a decline in people’s ability to access information about COVID-19. Even doctors weren’t able to access critical information published by the WHO. Additionally, the lockdown and the internet blockage meant people could not connect or talk to their loved ones, which increased mental health problems (Index, 2020).
Keywords
Communication shutdown: Controlling or restricting the free flow of information and news with the aim of highlighting the government narrative.
Collective Punishment: The Restriction of the free flow of information is sometimes considered a collective punishment because it limits everyone’s ability to reach information even if they have not committed any crime or have not done anything wrong to be punished.
One-dimensional state-controlled narrative: The government only allows its preferred narrative to be shared with citizens through media outlets that are pro-government, while restricting any opposing outlets.
Independent Media in Kashmir: Any form of media that is free from the influence and the control of the government. It began in the 1990s and played since then a key role in Kashmir’s media landscape, where digital media still faces many problems due to constant internet shutdowns.
Censorship: The restriction or prohibition of publishing or revealing part of or entire stories that are antigovernmental or that cause the government harm.
Disruption: Events or processes that could disturb or cause change to the status quo (or how things normally run).
Misinformation: Inaccurate information shared with the intention of deceiving receivers.
Normalization: To make something seem normal. A form of accepting and conforming to injustice or unacceptable acts.
Virtual private network (VPN): Allows a person to surf the internet privately even if the connection is public and makes actions online untraceable.
Mesh networks: Connects devices to one another on a local level without using internet.
