Mobile Internet Ban in 2015
August 2015: Gujarat government blocked mobile Internet services in Godhra following derogatory messages against Islam on WhatsApp.
September 2015: Jammu and Kashmir suspended Internet services for two days fearing violence in light of the beef ban in the state.
September 2015: Manipur saw the Mobile Internet shut down following three bills which were passed, infringing the rights of tribals in the state.
December 2015: Rajasthan police banned the usage of mobile internet following communal clashes in Nagaur.
After a test run in Gujarat, now the government in Haryana has decided to block mobile internet at Rohtak to contain violence over Jat Quota. Superintendent of Police Shashank Anand said that the decision has been taken “to maintain law and order”.
The Supreme Court recently said that the states can use their curfew powers to block Internet access on personal mobile, internet and technology experts however believe that its an idea, ‘useless’ in nature, essentially hitting the bullseye of the wrong target.
Here are the five reasons why blocking mobile internet does more damage than good:
You Block the Cross-Check of Information
Governments and administrations argue that social media instigates rumours. They say it is used as a tool to propagate false information. Malice on social media spreads like wild fire and governments are not equipped to deal with all this in time. Internet experts and technologists however believe that chat apps and social media are the biggest source for cross-checking information. In the modern times if the internet is down there is no way to check who said what, when and why.
“Shutting down networks ensures that authorities themselves cannot address misinformation: for example, the Chief Minister of the State could record audio, video and text messages and the state could share that officially across platforms,” says Nikhil Pahawa, internet activist and founder of media portal Medianama.
You Block Services and the Economy
A ban that was put in place to curtail rumour-mongering in Gujarat in 2015 affected over 98 lakh Internet users. Banking, trading, travel, manufacturing and other services dependent on Internet connectivity crippled down, and businesses that depend on WhatsApp and Facebook for orders experienced a blackout.
The telecom industry in Gujarat is estimated to have suffered a loss of about Rs 4.5-5 crore per day. Modern day economies run on mobile and digital connectivity. Subho Ray, president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India which also represents some telecom companies, has rightly said, “If you want us to send out free messages advocating peace and harmony, we are offering to do that. But why are we banned from carrying out legitimate businesses?”
You Block the Possibility of Controlling Chaos
The lessons of how a ban can backfire came for everybody in August 2012, when thousands of people from the Northeast began to head home from Bengaluru after hearing rumours that they would be singled out for attack.
SMS and internet on mobile was blocked, and there remained no way to cross-check or disseminate important information.
However, the administration soon had to reverse the ban with endless rounds of mass SMSes saying that the rumours spread by word of mouth were false and there was no such threat. The harsh reality was that the restricting the number of ‘reassuring’ texts and information that people of Northeastern origin could send to each other in a time of chaos hardly helped them feel safer!
You Block the Right to Free Speech
SMS is not the only way to spread rumours and threats. While the other ways of threatening and rumour-mongering remain available, bans are unlikely to be effective or yield results.
Section 79 and 69 of the IT Act allow governments to block internet and online content. However, ruling on sections of the IT Act, the Supreme court of India has clearly said, “there are three aspects of freedom of expression: discussion, advocacy and incitement. Only when discussion and advocacy reach the level of incitement, is Article 19 (2) of the Constitution, which puts reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech, applicable.”
Blocking internet is thus quite similar to banning the publication of all newspapers for a month because of some newspapers carry material that may incite riots.
You Cannot Actually Block ‘Communication’
Peer to Peer networks i.e. P2P enable offline messaging and are rolling out globally. There are apps that do not need an Internet connection, or even a cellular network connection – instead they use the Bluetooth and WiFi radios in the mobile phones to create a private mesh network and connect to other users.
‘Dead Drops’ i.e. the idea of sharing data anonymously through chips and USB drives is radical but already being explored. Members of the public are invited to drop or find files on a dead drop by directly plugging their laptop into the USB stick in the wall to share files and data.
Along with this, anonymous messaging tools and apps like Bleep lets users send end-to-end encrypted messages safe from surveillance. The moral of the story is, technology rules the modern day life and there is no way communications can be blocked.
In the name of public interest and guarding society from violence, such blocks and restrictions actually spell a lack of accountability. Its high time police and administrations turn smart and learn from the former Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria who used WhatsApp and SMSes to counter communal tensions when the time arrived.
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