Measuring internet freedom in India In the last 10 years

• For five straight years, India has topped the global list of countries imposing internet bans, with about 60% of all blackouts recorded in the world, between 2016 and 2022 having been in India.
• State imposed shutdowns in the last decade have cited national security and threats to public order.

Internet shutdowns

• The Indian government imposed a total of 780 shutdowns between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2023, according to data collected by the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC).
• Shutdowns flared up during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019, the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, and the introduction of Farm Bills in 2020.
• Internet disruptions in India accounted for more than 70% of the total loss to the global economy in 2020.
• Indian States and Union Territories can impose an internet shutdown only in case of a “public emergency” or in the interest of “public safety”, according to the Indian Telegraph Act.
• However, the law does not define what qualifies as an emergency or safety issue.

Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India case

• The Supreme Court, in the landmark Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India case, reiterated that internet shutdowns violate fundamental rights to freedom of expression
  • And shutdowns lasting indefinitely are unconstitutional.
• Moreover, Courts have asked governments to make shutdown orders public, a provision poorly complied with, experts have noted.

Reason for ban

• Between 2015 and 2022, more than 55,000 websites were blocked, according to SFLC data.
• The biggest share of content censored was done under section 69A of the IT Act, by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
• URLs were blocked due to links to organisations banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
• A commonly cited reason for blocking websites is the escalating threat of cybercrime.

India and global trends

• Global Internet freedom has declined for the 13th consecutive year, and the environment for human rights online has deteriorated in 29 countries, according to the latest Freedom House report.
• India’s ranking has hovered around the same benchmark in the last three years.
• This is a dip from 2016 and 2017, when India scored 59 points, to 50 points in 2023.