India recorded highest internet shutdowns for 6th straight year in 2023, reveals report

New Delhi, NT Bureau: For the sixth year in a row in 2023, India led the world in the number of state-sanctioned internet shutdowns, as documented by digital rights and privacy organisation Access Now.

A total of 116 internet shutdowns were ordered by the Indian government in the previous calendar year, as against 283 state-sanctioned shutdowns globally, the organisation alleged in a report released on Wednesday.

In India, 65 of the 116 internet shutdowns in 2023 were in response to communal violence, the report said. Shutdowns were ordered in as many as 13 states and Union territories, of which seven disrupted internet services five times or more.

“India, for the sixth time, carried the shameful mantle of the world’s shutdown leader with at least 116 recorded shutdowns,” a press release accompanying the report said.

“In the last five years, Indian authorities have hit the kill switch over 500 times, repeatedly plunging millions in the world’s largest democracy into darkness.”