Censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

involves the

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

of both

news media The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. These include news agencies, print media (newspapers, news magazines), broadcast news (radio and television), and th ...

and

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

as part of the

Kashmir conflict The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, with China playing a third-party role. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakistan claim ...

. According to the

Software Freedom Law Center The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) is an organization that provides ''pro bono'' legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen a ...

, the internet in Kashmir was blocked at least 31 times from 2012 to 2016.

2010 protest censorship

A protest reportedly took place in the

Indian Administered Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

against the summer of 2010, when 15 people were killed in three weeks by the

Indian Armed Forces The Indian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force.—— Additionally, the Indian Armed Forces are supported by ...

. Army's help was sought to restore law and order after protests by people as Government virtually banned the media in the Valley by imposing severe restrictions on journalists. The revolution was allegedly carried out by youth who disseminated information to the outer world in view of the gagging of media, newspapers and

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

services.

July 2016 media outlet ban

The ban of media in 2016 in Kashmir began 10 days after the killing of Burhan Wani, a popular rebel group leader in Kashmir. Protests against the killing of Wani broke out in the streets as young Kashmiris attacked the police. Wani was a social-media-savvy insurgent who affected the lives of the majority of Kashmiris, requesting them to follow his path through social media and newspaper posts. These protests led to more than 33 deaths and hundreds being severely injured. The riots and protests got so unruly that the government decided to impose serious actions on the media while they struggled to bring the situation under control. The government decided to shut down cable TV operators and private cellphone services, as well as banning daily newspapers. The government called this an ‘information blockade’ as they believed that young and emotion lot of people out on the streets that are surcharged by certain media publications. The newspapers refrain from publishing content deemed inappropriate by the government but this was the first time there was a ban imposed on the newspapers. Police officials and security forces raided printing presses and seized copies of newspapers. The ban lasted for over a week in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

April 2017 social media ban

In April 2017, the authorities in

Indian administered Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

(IAK) banned several social media sites after they believed that they were being used as a tool to indulge violence and terrorism amongst the youths by anti-national elements. The government of IAK regularly blocked internet connections but this was the first time such a step was taken on social media. Over the past five years, the government blocked internet signals over 28 times and in 2016, the internet connection was blocked for about five months. The social media sites and apps blocked included

WhatsApp WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows us ...

Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

WeChat WeChat () is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has bee ...

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

Pinterest Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...

, and

Vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

. The government described this ban as an action to control the political space in IAK. Due to this ban, riots broke down in certain IAK regions. The protests started in the southern district of Pulwama by certain ringleaders. Hundreds of students have taken it to the streets, some chanting antinational slogans while others attacking the police using rocks.

Censorship on Facebook

Several newspapers and magazines, such as ''Free Press Kashmir'', ''Wande Magazine'', and ''Lost Kashmir History'', have been censored on

2019-20 Jammu and Kashmir lockdown

On August 5, 2019, a security lockdown and communications blackout was imposed to prevent protests during which thousands of people, mostly young men, have been illegally detained in

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

. The lockdown started on 5 August 2019 following

Revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir On 5 August 2019, the Parliament of India voted in favour of a resolution tabled by Home Minister Amit Shah to revoke the temporary special status, or autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir—a regio ...

via scrapping of the

Article 370 of the Constitution of India Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, a region located in the northern part of Indian subcontinent and part of the larger region of Kashmir which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pak ...

Article 35A of the Constitution of India Article 35A of the Indian Constitution was an article that empowered the Jammu and Kashmir state's legislature to define "permanent residents" of the state and provide special rights and privileges to them. It was added to the Constitution thr ...

and the introduction of

Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 is an act of the parliament of India containing provisions to reconstitute the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Indian-administered union territories (UTs) called Jammu an ...

. Since 5 August, no foreign journalists have been granted permission from the

Indian government The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the Government, national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy lo ...

to report in Kashmir. According to a September 6 report of the Indian government, nearly 4,000 people have been arrested and detained in the disputed region. Among those arrested were more than 200 politicians, including two former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), along with more than 100 leaders and activists from

All Parties Hurriyat Conference All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) is an alliance of 26 political, social and religious organizations formed on 9 March 1993, as a united political front to raise the cause of Kashmiri separatism in the Kashmir conflict. Mehmood Ahmed Sagh ...

. The lockdown ended with the resumption of all communication services, allowing 4G and 3G Internet services, in early February 2021.As 4G is restored in Jammu & Kashmir, Centre plans another trip for foreign envoys , India News , Zee News
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Censorship on internet

Censorship on internet refers to the restrictions on telecommunication such as

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

as well as

mobile internet The mobile web refers to mobile browser-based World Wide Web services accessed from handheld mobile devices, such as smartphones or feature phones, through a mobile or other wireless network. History and development Traditionally, the World ...

imposed by the government of India or state administration. In August 2019, the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

barred all broadband as well as mobile internet services in the region to prevent the deliberately fabricated falsehood on social media. In January 2020, 2G internet was resumed with no access to social media. Although some cases of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

infection have been confirmed in the region, authorities continued to enforce the 4G internet ban, preventing people from getting important information about the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and its safety tips. Medical institutions has described 4G ban a risk factor for COVID-19 deaths in J&K, as the information about WHO's guideline on testing and its countermeasures remained inaccessible in the region.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

also urged government to restore 4G internet in critical situation of pandemic disease. Doctors, according to news media, are not able to deal the coronavirus due to non-availability of 4G internet and lack of significant information available online. In April - May 2020,

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

heard a batch of writ petitions challenging the ban on 4G internet services. J&K administration opposed the plea stating that ''"the right to access the internet is not a fundamental right".'' On 11 May 2020, Supreme Court disposed of these petitions refusing the request for restoration of 4G internet services. Court, however, constituted a special committee composed of senior bureaucrats to look into the issue. The committee ironically was composed of the bureaucrats having a major hand in imposing the censorship.

Later development

High-speed cellular internet has been restored across the UT since February 2021.