In 2022, the world saw 187 internet shutdowns – 84 by India alone

More than half of those shutdowns were recorded in Kashmir as India leads the Access Now list for a fifth consecutive year. These were the findings of a report released on Tuesday by digital rights watchdog Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition, which said governments are using internet shutdowns as “weapons of control and shields of impunity”. pic.twitter.com/gQzIUaYFo2 — Access Now February 28, 2023 “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 report said. Srinivas Kodali, digital rights activist and researcher with the Free Software Movement of India, told Al Jazeera that internet shutdowns are happening in India because the government can afford to block Indian-administered Kashmir out. “In 2022, under authoritarian regimes and in democracies, powermongers accelerated their use of these callous tactics, disrupting the internet to fuel their agendas of oppression – manipulating narratives, silencing voices and ensuring cover for their own acts of violence and abuse,” said Felicia Anthonio, the #KeepItOn campaign manager at Access Now, in a statement.