‘Internet restrictions in J&K digital apartheid’

Collective punishment on people, says JKCCS

An amalgam of human rights groups and activists in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday said that the internet “siege’ in the erstwhile state is a form of collective punishment unleashed on its people.

The amalgam — Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) — in a report released here said, “The ongoing internet siege enacts a ‘digital apartheid’, a form of systemic and pervasive discriminatory treatment and collective punishment”.

It asserted that it is a violation of international human rights law as well as the laws of armed conflict for the same “is a means of political repression that serves as a deliberate means of severing social, economic and political connections between Kashmiris, while also isolating them from the world”.

The report said, “For the already vulnerable people of J&K, who live amidst a state of perpetual war and permanent emergency, this siege is enforced by various modes of network disruption and state control over access to the internet. These disruptions disproportionately target essential civilian supplies and services, adversely impact human rights and preemptively silence all forms of online speech.”

Last week, the authorities restored high-speed 4G internet service on “experimental basis” in two districts of the erstwhile state, Udhampur and Ganderbal, more than a year after a complete communication blackout was enforced in both Jammu and Kashmir Valley regions ahead of the Centre abrogating Article 370 and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019.

Though the landline and mobile phone and 2G bandwidth internet services were restored in a phased manner across what is now called the Union Territory of J&K, 18 out of 20 of its districts continue to be deprived of the high-speed 4G internet.

The recent judgments and observations of the Supreme Court have failed to end what the JKCCS calls J&K’s “digital siege”. Its report said, “Instead they (J&K authorities) have inaugurated a new legalised regime of mass surveillance, filtering, and internet-speed throttling through expansive executive orders”. It said that these orders are issued every two weeks, and from January 2020 until now a total of 17 such extension orders have been issued.

“Alongside routine extensions of internet restrictions, frequent complete suspensions of mobile internet connectivity through emergency police orders have also continued unabated,” the report said adding that since January this year, when partial 2G internet connectivity was first restored, 70 such temporary suspension orders have been issued.

Talking about the livelihood consequences of the post- August 5, 2019 shutdown, the report said that these were severe and losses suffered during the first five months alone were estimated at `178.78 billion, with more than 500,000 people having lost their jobs.

LAST WEEK, the authorities restored high-speed 4G internet service on “experimental basis” in two districts of the erstwhile state, Udhampur and Ganderbal