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Govt revokes month-long ban on social media in Kashmir

Last Updated 27 May 2017, 04:25 IST

Jammu and Kashmir government Friday evening lifted a month-long ban on 22 social media sites and applications, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, in the Valley.

“We have not extended the ban, which has expired (on April 26). We are not issuing any order for it and social media networks will function as they used to work in the past,” Principal Secretary Home RK Goyal said.

The State government, while invoking powers conferred on it under Indian Telegraph Act and Information Technology Act, had on April 26 banned 22 social networking sites, in an attempt to curb the street protests in the Valley.

The State Home Department in its order had stated that these social networking sites were being “misused by anti-national and anti-social elements to create law and order disturbances” in Kashmir.

However, the ban had little meaning as users accessed the banned sites through virtual private networks. The VPN masks a user’s location, letting them access websites banned in a particular area. "People were using VPNs and at one time it will become difficult for us to control the internet misuse," a senior police official said.

The Internet is often suspended or restricted in Kashmir to quell violent protests.According to a report by the Software Freedom Law Centre, the internet has been blocked in Kashmir at least 31 times between 2012 to 2016.

However, this was for the first time that the authorities placed a complete ban on social networking sites. The ban had evoked widespread criticism with UN experts on May 11 urging the government of India to withdraw the ban on internet services in J&K and reinstate freedom of speech.

Terming the ban "archaic", the main opposition National Conference had accused the government of meting out "collective punishment to the people of Kashmir for expressing their political aspiration and raising voice against gross human rights excesses."

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(Published 27 May 2017, 04:25 IST)

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