87 Global News Post 1

https://globalvoices.org/2022/04/25/rising-anti-muslim-sentiments-across-india-instigated-by-ultra-right-hindu-groups/ by Subhashish Panigraphi

(Diagram of State-Wide Internet Shutdowns in India)(2021)

As the internet becomes an integral part of the developed world, some authorities show their concerns about what it may lead citizens to hear and see on the internet. This leads to censorship in countries like China where internet restrictions are some of the harshest in the world. This Global Voices article compares the country to India, as it has continually restricted websites and even completed an entire internet shutdown in Kashmir and Jammu in 2019. This became the longest internet shutdown in a democracy.

In the article, What do we know about ‘the great firewall of India’, Subhashish Panigraphi, a researcher and multimedia artist describes the shutdown of the internet in the Indian territories of Kashmir and Jammu. In 2019 the authorities entirely shut down the internet for 5 months. This forced citizens to travel to other territories for simple things like checking their emails or accessing landlines. The country’s supreme court eventually claimed this was unconstitutional which led to a partial shutdown. Panigraphi compares this shutdown to China’s ‘great firewall’. Although he says the government was working to open the internet back up by ‘whitelisting’ allowed websites while telling internet providers to install firewalls and telling social media sights to censor ‘illegal’ content.

The internet in India has been shut down over 75 times in 2020. In 2020 they also banned 58 social media sites like TikTok, WeChat, Shien, and more. Subhashish Panigraphi explains the issue well as he is a researcher and gives a viewpoint from an Indian himself. Also, Panigraphi gives views from others by providing tweets from an organization like, “Internet Shutdowns” from India, and from other Global Voices authors. Although, Panigraphi fails to explain the relationship these shutdowns have to India and China’s relations. The majority of the websites that were banned in India are Chinese websites. India hasn’t made any statements directly justifying this, they have had recent issues in 2020 at the Sino-Indian border. India has since lifted entire internet shutdowns since 2020 although much is still censored.

References

Panigrahi, S. (2020, February 17). What do we know about the ‘great firewall of India? Global Voices Advox. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://advox.globalvoices.org/2020/02/10/what-do-we-know-about-the-great-firewall-of-india/

State-wide Internet Shutdowns in India as of February 2021. (2021). More than 400 internet lockdowns in last 4 years in India; average cost of each shutdown Rs 2 crore/hour. Retrieved 2023, from https://www.indiatoday.in/diu/story/more-than-400-internet-lockdowns-in-last-4-years-in-india-average-cost-of-each-shutdown-rs-2-crore-hour-1766025-2021-02-04.