India restores access to social media in Kashmir for two weeks – TechCrunch

For the first time in eight months, people in Kashmir can use WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and other social services without fear or using special software – although things are not back to normal yet.

India said Wednesday that it has temporarily lifted the ban on social media services and the much broader Internet, and given relief to people and tens of thousands of businesses in the Himalayan region for two weeks.

New Delhi imposed a total communications outage-controlled area in India in early August last year after the deprivation of the special rights of Jammu and Kashmir. The government said the move was necessary to maintain peace in the region.

The move that eventually became the largest Internet shutdown and crackdown on social media in a democracy was also heavily criticized by human rights defenders around the world by lawmakers in the United Kingdom and the United States.

The region in which more than Living 7 million people faced many challenges without access to the Internet. The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry said at least 1

50,000 jobs were lost.

India’s Supreme Court ruled in January that the government’s move, controlled by Narendra Modi to enforce an “unspecified” communication failure was an abuse of power. and looked for an explanation.

As part of the contract, India opened access to approximately 300 non-social media sites and limited the speed of mobile data at the 2G level. An analysis had shown that more than a third of the whitelisted websites were largely inaccessible.

To circumvent censorship, some users started using VPN apps on their smartphones. The local authority quickly classified this as “illegal” and postponed cases against hundreds of citizens to open it.

On Wednesday evening (local time), several people in Kashmir confirmed that they could access WhatsApp and other social media services again – although the speed of their mobile data is still limited. [19659010] My first tweet from #Kashmir outside the state media center and without using a VPN. Have nothing unusual to say, except that tweeting feels so unreal from the comfort of your own home.
Does someone in #Kashmir find it annoying / strange to be constantly informed about WhatsApp?

– Azaan Javaid (@AzaanJavaid) March 4, 2020