How internet shutdowns doubled violence against women in Manipur

News Network
July 27, 2023

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When videos of two women being paraded naked and assaulted in Manipur went viral last week on social media, the remote northeastern state had been cut off from internet access for nearly three months.

The attack took place on May 4, but the videos of the women being dragged and groped by armed men before what onlookers say was a gang rape, surfaced last week. Authorities said they are investigating the incident and have arrested several men.

Officials imposed a statewide internet shutdown on May 3, saying it was needed to curb rumours and disinformation, and quell violent ethnic clashes that have killed at least 125 people and displaced tens of thousands.

But the internet ban in the state - among the longest in India to date - has made it difficult to alert authorities and journalists to rights violations, many of them directed at women, activists say.

"If there was no internet shutdown, those videos would have surfaced over two months ago and the horror could have been addressed speedily, and other similar offences could have been curbed," said Patricia Mukhim, an activist and editor of the Shillong Times daily in Meghalaya.

"The internet shutdown is a violation of human rights - it curtails people's freedom, and it shuts out news of violent incidents and allows perpetrators to carry on undeterred," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The shutdowns also have an "adverse impact on women's ability to feel safe and restrict their freedom of movement," said Jayshree Bajoria, an associate director at Human Rights Watch in Asia.

"It took a horrific video of violence against women in Manipur to emerge on social media for the authorities to take action. This shows how necessary the internet is for the flow of information, and reporting and documenting abuses," she said.

After the Manipur high court directed the state government to restore the internet in a "limited fashion", authorities on Tuesday said they had "conditionally" lifted the ban on broadband services.

Social media websites, WiFi hotspots, virtual private networks (VPNs) and mobile internet - used by a majority of people - still remain blocked in Manipur.

Adverse impact

India had the most number of shutdowns in the world for the fifth successive year in 2022, according to Access Now, a digital rights group.

The shutdowns - including during protests, elections and examinations - were often imposed for indefinite periods and without the publication of shutdown orders, in violation of a 2020 judgment by the nation's top court.

"Authorities have cited violence as part of the rationale for shutting down the internet. However, there is no evidence to show internet shutdowns reduce violence - quite the opposite," Access Now said in a report in May.

The clashes in Manipur, which borders Myanmar, began when members of the Kuki and Naga tribal groups launched a protest on May 3 against the possible sharing of their benefits with the ethnic majority Meiteis in the state.

The federal government rushed thousands of paramilitary and army troops to the state of 3.2 million people, but the state has remained tense since, with killings and other incidents of sporadic violence.

The restive northeast region is among the least developed in the country, with patchy internet access and among the most shutdowns in India, according to data compiled by the Software Freedom Law Center, a digital rights group.

As more services are digitised under the Digital India programme, internet shutdowns disproportionately hurt rural communities and other vulnerable groups such as those who depend on social welfare benefits, a recent report by Human Rights Watch and the Internet Freedom Foundation showed.

Toll on women

In addition to shutdowns, authorities also frequently block websites and issue takedown orders to social media platforms. The government issued nearly 7,000 takedown orders of social media posts and accounts last year compared to 6,000 in 2021, according to Access Now.

Most shutdowns involve blocking the internet on mobile phones, which is how most of the population, particularly in rural areas, access the internet.

This severely impacts access to education and livelihoods, particularly for rural women, the report by Human Rights Watch and IFF showed.

In the western state of Rajasthan, which has had the most internet shutdowns after Kashmir, the majority of workers in the government's rural employment guarantee programme are women.

As attendance checks and wage payments for workers have been digitised, frequent internet shutdowns in the state mean that many women don't get to work, or that they don't get paid, said Bajoria.

"Most of the women come from socially and economically marginalised households ... shutdowns that cut off internet access make their situation worse," she said.

In Manipur, the shutdown means that women cannot communicate as easily with their families via WhatsApp, check the news, make and receive payments on the phone, or even recharge their mobile SIMs, said Ninglun Hangal, who works with development non-profits.

Unable to work from home because of the internet ban, Hangal travelled 13 hours to relocate to neighbouring Assam state. But for women forced to stay back, conditions are tough, she said.

"There are more rumours and misinformation circulating, and there's no way to check or clarify what is true" she said.

"Women feel isolated and scared for their safety, and it's taking a terrible toll. More cases of assault and abuse are bound to come to light when the internet is restored."

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News Network
November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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News Network
November 18,2024

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Mangaluru: The Ullal police have arrested Manohar, the owner of Vazco Beach Resort, and its manager Bharath in connection with the drowning of three college girls from Mysuru at the resort’s swimming pool on November 17.

City Commissioner of Police Anupam Agrawal confirmed the arrests, stating that a case has been registered under Section 106 of BNS. The bodies of the victims, all in their twenties, have been handed over to their parents. The women had arrived at the resort for a weekend getaway on November 16.

Following the tragic incident, the resort was sealed by officials led by Mangaluru Assistant Commissioner Harshavardhan. The trade license of the resort, issued on June 13, 2024, has been suspended, and the tourism department has temporarily revoked the resort's registration. These actions prohibit the resort from engaging in any tourism-related activities until further notice.

Someshwara TMC Chief Officer stated that the suspension was due to the resort's failure to implement adequate safety measures, which resulted in the loss of three lives. Further investigations are underway.

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News Network
November 11,2024

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The Manipur Kuki MLAs have released a statement calling out Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's 'lies' in the Supreme Court. In a joint statement, the MLAs, including those from the Bharatiya Janata Party, said they had not had any meeting with the Chief Minister since May 3, 2023, nor did they intend to meet him in the future as “he was the mastermind behind the violence”.

As per the MLAs, the SG lied about state CM N Biren Singh speaking to Kuki MLAs to control the situation there, in order to halt a Supreme Court probe into the leaked tapes which allege that Singh has been complicit in the violence that broke out between Kukis and Meitis there.

"We...clarify that we have never had any meeting with Chief Minister, Shri N. Biren Singh since May 3, 2023, nor have any intention to meet him in future as he is the mastermind behind the violence and ethnic cleansing of our people from the Imphal valley, which is continuing till today, the latest being the brutal killing and burning of Mrs Zosangkim Hmar on November 7, 2024," the letter read, while condemning the recent 'barbaric' killing of the woman there, and noting the SG's assertion is 'tantamount' to misleading the top court.

“We, the undersigned ten MLAs, have come to know that during the Supreme Court hearing held on November 8, 2024, the Solicitor General of India submitted that ‘CM is meeting all Kuki MLAs and trying to bring the situation down to get peace’. In this connection, we hereby categorically state that this submission is a blatant lie and tantamount to misleading the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India,” the statement said.

The Supreme Court, while hearing a petition by a Kuki organisation, asked that it submit audio tapes to substantiate its claim that the Chief Minister was instrumental in inciting and organising violence in the northeastern State.

Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta orally informed the court that the Chief Minister was meeting all the Kuki-Zo MLAs and that peace in the State had come at a huge cost.

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