Restricted and Unrestricted Internet - Freedom World - The Case of Kashmir(India)

I have been thinking about writing about this topic for so long but somehow I never found the time and motivation. Thanks to @upmewhale for hosting Restricted and Unrestricted Internet - Freedom World contest which gave me an opportunity along with many others to write about it.

It goes without saying that the internet is the most powerful tool in today's world and I can't think of a person who is willing to live without it. The Internet has been the game-changer, especially after the early 2000s when it gained mass adoption. Since then, a lot has changed and there have been incidents when our privacy was violated and our precious data was sold to companies for money.

That's not it, our governments have been keeping an eye on us since the very start and they want us to say only what they want to hear. Yes, I live in a country that calls itself the largest democracy in the world and yet there occurs violation of our fundamental rights on a daily basis. I have seen many incidents when content was removed from social media as per government instructions. Many YouTube videos, addressing the shortcomings of the government have been struck down in the past year or so which raises questions on India calling itself a democratic country.

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India is proposing a ban on cryptocurrency and according to the draft, if anyone engages in buying, selling or holding cryptocurrency, he/she might face a jail term of up to 10 years (that's just insane). India has also banned many websites, most of which are porn based. According to Wikipedia, 857 porn sites are blocked in India. It might not be a big deal for people but these restrictions shouldn't be there. It's not tough to bypass the blocked websites but for the majority of people, it can be a big ask.

The Kashmir Issue

Internet restriction is a very small word when it comes to Kashmir as it is not the restrictions that are hurting the people of Kashmir but it is the ban on the Internet. Today marks the 108th day of Kashmir without Internet access. Can you imagine the World without the Internet for more than 100 days? Yeah, I know, the answer is a big NO. The people of Kashmir have been barred from using the Internet for nearly 4 months now and it's funny that the government is saying that the situation in Kashmir is normal.

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The internet was shut down on the 5th of August this year when the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated and since then, there is no sign of resumption of services. The people of Kashmir have suffered huge losses because of the unavailability of the internet, be it, students, businessmen, companies, financial institutions, etc. However, this is not new for the people of Kashmir as we have witnessed this shutting down of the internet countless times. According to this report, out of a total of 196 internet shutdowns ordered in the world in 2018, India has ordered 134 of them which accounts for 67% of the total shutdowns. Further, 47% of the total shutdowns have been ordered in the region of Kashmir only. The 108-day long shutdown is the 53rd shutdown of this year.

All this is happening because of the fact that the people of Kashmir want freedom which India is denying. According to the pact signed by the then ruler of Kashmir and prime minister of India, a referendum will be held which will determine the future of the people of Kashmir but that referendum has never been held.

Every nation in the world has it's problems. While it is good to write about them and spread the word but it's time we start acting on individual levels to make this earth a beautiful place to live in.

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