India tops internet shutdowns for 4th time

New Delhi, Apr 28: India emerged as the country with the highest number of internet shutdowns for the fourth year in a row. The reasons for the shutdowns range from curbing protests to preventing online frauds, a report released by Access Now, a tech policy think tank said.

Out of the 106 shutdowns, 85 were found in Jammu and Kashmir alone. "In 2021, authorities deliberately shut down the Internet at least 182 times across 34 countries. India is the world's largest offender, and blacked out the internet at least 106 times,"the report said.

However the number of shutdowns in 2021 were less when compared to 2020 when 109 shutdowns took place.

The report says that governments in the Asia-Pacific region implemented at least 129 shutdowns in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Pakistan.

"The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology released a report highlighting the misuse of internet shutdowns, and the impact on rights and freedoms. However, it does not altogether condemn their use, and fails to state one of the most important facts of internet shutdowns: they can never be justified," the report also said.