Out of the 65 countries assessed, 26 are said to have experienced a deterioration.
India
leads the world in the number of internet
shutdowns, with over 100 reported incidents in 2018 alone
according to a report titled 'Freedom on the Net' by a US think tank.
Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre, a legal services
organisation, puts the number at 121 as of October 10, 2018.
An
earlier report by India Spend claimed that nearly 16,315 hours of
internet shutdowns over six years till 2017 cost India
$3.04 billion (Rs 213.36 billion).
Aggregated
data collated by SFLC shows that there have been 233 reported
instances of suspension of internet services in India in the last
seven years. However, 73 per cent of these shutdowns have happened
only in the last year and a half.
The
SLFC report further stated that internet shutdowns go against the
human rights of citizens and should call for further questioning on
their purpose in the interest of transparency.
There
are largely three different laws under which such orders are given by
the governments. First is Section 144, Code of Criminal Procedure,
1973, which allows the authorities to lay down guidelines to impose
“temporary measures to maintain public tranquility.”
The
'Freedom on the Net' report offers a bleak perspective on the state
of internet freedom across the world.
Out
of the 65 countries assessed, 26 are said to have experienced a
deterioration. Almost half of all declines were related to elections.
The
Indian government has been referred to as a poor custodian of privacy
on the basis of several alleged breaches of the Aadhaar database.
The
report also mentioned the recent spate of mob lynchings due to the
spread of fake
news. It states:
"Users
in the state of Tamil Nadu shared a video showing a child being
kidnapped by a masked motorcyclist on WhatsApp, along with an audio
message warning that 200 “Hindi-speaking” child kidnappers were
entering the state. The video was actually from a public-service
announcement against child kidnapping in Karachi, Pakistan. Mobs
killed at least two people and physically assaulted several others
who were mistaken for kidnappers."
No comments:
Post a Comment