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 12,2024

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The Taliban regime has appointed Ikramuddin Kamil as the acting consul in the Afghan mission in Mumbai, Afghan media has reported.

It is the first such appointment made by the Taliban set up to any Afghan mission in India.

There was no immediate comment from the Indian side on the appointment that came.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan has announced the appointment of Kamil as the acting consul in Mumbai, the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.

"He is currently in Mumbai, where he is fulfilling his duties as a diplomat representing the Islamic Emirate," it said.

The appointment is part of Kabul's efforts to strengthen diplomatic ties with India and enhance its presence abroad, the media outlet said

Kamil holds a PhD degree in international law and previously served as the deputy director in the department of security cooperation and border affairs in the foreign ministry, it said.

He is expected to facilitate consular services and represent the interests of Afghanistan in India, the report added.

Kamil's appointment comes days after the external affairs ministry's point-person for Afghanistan held talks with the Taliban's acting defence minister, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, in Kabul.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban's deputy foreign minister for political affairs, also posted on X about Kamil's appointment.

The appointment of Kamil is seen as part of efforts to facilitate consular services to the Afghan population in Mumbai.

There has been almost negligible presence of diplomatic staff at the Afghan missions in India.

Most of the diplomats appointed by the Ashraf Ghani government have already left India.

In May, Zakia Wardak, the seniormost Afghan diplomat in India, resigned from her position after reports emerged that she was caught at the Mumbai airport for allegedly trying to smuggle 25 kg of gold worth Rs 18.6 crore from Dubai.

Wardak had taken charge as the acting ambassador of Afghanistan to New Delhi late last year, after working as the Afghan consul general in Mumbai for more than two years.

She took charge of the Afghan embassy in New Delhi last November, after the mission helmed by then ambassador Farid Mamundzay announced its closure.

Mamundzay, who was an appointee of the Ghani government, had moved to the United Kingdom.

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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 15,2024

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Union minister Amit Shah on Friday, November 15, said PM Narendra Modi will amend the Waqf Act despite opposition from leaders like Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.

"Modi ji wants to change the Waqf Board law, but Uddhav ji, Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule are opposing it," Shah said, addressing a rally at Umarkhed in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district.

"Uddhav ji, listen carefully, you all can protest as much as you want, but Modi ji will amend the Waqf Act," he said. Shah said there are two camps in the November 20 Maharashtra assembly polls, one of 'Pandavas' represented by the BJP-led Mahayuti and the other of 'Kauravas' represented by Maha Vikas Aghadi.

"Uddhav Thackeray claims that his Shiv Sena is the real one. Can the real Shiv Sena go against renaming Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar? Can the real Shiv Sena go against renaming Ahmednagar to Ahilyanagar? The real Shiv Sena stands with the BJP," Shah said.

"Rahul Baba used to say that his government would credit money in the accounts of the people instantly. You were unable to fulfil your promises in Himachal, Karnataka, and Telangana," he said.

Shah said the Mahayuti alliance has promised that women will get Rs 2,100 per month under the Ladki Bahin Yojana. "Kashmir is an integral part of India and no power in the world can snatch it away from us," Shah said.

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