By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) -&nbsp;India&nbsp;imposed by far the highest number of&nbsp;internet&nbsp;shutdowns in the&nbsp;world&nbsp;in 2022,&nbsp;internet&nbsp;advocacy&nbsp;watchdog&nbsp;Access&nbsp;Now said on Tuesday, as the country topped the list for the fifth successive&nbsp;year.
Out of 187&nbsp;internet&nbsp;shutdowns globally recorded by&nbsp;Access&nbsp;Now, 84 took place in&nbsp;India, including 49 in&nbsp;Indian- administered Kashmir, the New York-based digital rights advocacy group said in a report published on Tuesday.
"Authorities disrupted&nbsp;internet&nbsp;access&nbsp;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&nbsp;watchdog&nbsp;report added.
Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between&nbsp;India&nbsp;and archrival Pakistan, which claim the region in full but rule only parts.
In August 2019, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the autonomy of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, splitting it into two federally administered territories.
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.
Militants have battled&nbsp;India's rule in Kashmir for more than three decades. The South Asian country blames Pakistan for stoking the revolt. Islamabad denies the claims.
Although&nbsp;India&nbsp;once again led the&nbsp;world&nbsp;in&nbsp;internet&nbsp;shutdowns, 2022 marked the first time since 2017 that there were fewer than 100 shutdowns in the country, the&nbsp;watchdog&nbsp;said.
Ukraine was second on the list, with the Russian military&nbsp;cutting&nbsp;access&nbsp;to the&nbsp;internet&nbsp;at least 22 times after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 of last&nbsp;year.
"During Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military cut&nbsp;internet&nbsp;access&nbsp;at least 22 times, engaging in cyberattacks and deliberately destroying telecommunications infrastructure," the&nbsp;watchdog&nbsp;said in its report.
Ukraine was followed on the list by Iran where authorities imposed 18&nbsp;internet&nbsp;shutdowns in 2022 in response to demonstrations against the government.
Nationwide anti-government protests erupted in Iran last fall after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody on Sept. 16 last&nbsp;year. Amini was arrested in Tehran by the morality police for flouting the hijab rules, which require women to entirely cover their hair and bodies. She died while in custody.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

you might like

India leads world in cutting internet access for 5th year in a row -watchdog