Internet Shutdowns in India
Internet shutdowns have become more and more prevalent as a way for governments to stamp out dissidents and keep civil unrest from happening by preventing citizens from communicating with each other. India, in particular, has been a leader in the trend of shutting down the internet, with at least 106 documented internet shutdowns in 2019 and 83 in 2020. These included a 213 day internet shutdown between August 2019 and March 2020 in the region of Jammu and Kashmir, home to more than 12 million people.
This week, protests around new agricultural policies in India have led to the government shutting off internet access in some regions of the state of Haryana, where many of the protesting farmers are from, and in parts of the national capital region of Delhi, where protests were being held.
#VoicesFromDelhi
— InternetShutdowns.in (@NetShutdowns) January 27, 2021
A student talks about how his studies are getting impacted because of the #shutdown as the internet is still not fully back on. Tell us your experience of living in digital darkness by tweeting to is @NetShutdowns#LetTheNetWork pic.twitter.com/maOa6J3XBr
The lack of internet access can be extremely disruptive to people's daily lives and harms effort towards digital inclusion. As we move towards more digitized economies and communication systems, the intermittent lack of internet access can make it impossible to work and learn online. This is especially true in our current moment, when much of the economy and education has shifted online due to the pandemic.
In places like Kashmir, where internet access was only restored to 2G speeds, it is difficult to access information about COVID. Kashmir has also lost an estimated half a million jobs since August 2019, and many students are unable to attend schools due to the continued slow internet.
As countries continue to shut down the internet more frequently and for larger populations -- this week's shutdown in India affected around 50 million people -- the implications of shutdowns on digital inclusion are only going to become more and more apparent.
What are your entity's policies towards internet shutdowns? Do you view them as a barrier to digital inclusion?
Estonia works towards on being a free and Internet-inclusive country. We view them as barriers because Internet is important to many of the citizens. For example, students need Internet access to gain information on assignments or the Internet shutdown disputes their education. Internet shutdowns are against the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
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