India imposed by far the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world in 2022, internet advocacy watchdog Access Now said, as the country topped the list for the fifth successive year.
In a report, the New York-based digital rights advocacy organization said that out of 187 internet shutdowns worldwide, 84 occurred in India, including 49 in Indian-administered Kashmir.
"Authorities disrupted internet access at least 49 times in Kashmir due to political instability and violence, including a string of 16 back-to-back orders for three-day-long curfew-style shutdowns in January and February 2022," the watchdog report added.
Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and arch rival Pakistan, which claim the region in full but rule only parts. Jammu and Kashmir, a state with a predominance of Muslims, lost its autonomy in August 2019 as a result of a decision made by the federally administered two-territory Bharatiya Janata Party administration, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The government has since regularly imposed communications restrictions on the region on security grounds, which rights groups have condemned and described as measures to quash dissent.
Ukraine was second on the list, with the Russian military cutting access to the internet at least 22 times after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb 24 of last year.
Following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, on September 16th of last year while in police custody, there were widespread anti-government demonstrations in Iran last autumn. Following this the Iranian government imposed restrictions on the use of internet to curtail the spread of dissent there. The morality police in Tehran detained Amini for disobeying the hijab regulations, which call for women to completely conceal their bodies and hair.