Kashmir
Kashmiri students browse internet on their mobile phones as they sits inside a restaurant in Srinagar, Indian administered Kashmir, Wednesday, April 26, 2017. On Wednesday, authorities ordered internet service providers to block 16 social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, and popular online chat applications for one month “in the interest of maintenance of public order.”

SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have banned 22 social media sites in an effort to calm tensions in the disputed region after videos depicting the alleged abuse of Kashmiris by Indian forces fueled protests. However, some sites have remained online as the local telecom company struggled to block them.

India’s government this week said that the one-month ban was necessary for public safety because social media were being “misused by anti-national and anti-social elements.”

“It’s being felt that continued misuse of social networking sites and instant messaging services is likely to be detrimental to the interests of peace and tranquility in the state,” the public order said.

Pranesh Prakash, policy director for the Indian advocacy group the Center for Internet and Society, called the ban a “blow to freedom of speech” and “legally unprecedented in India,” in an interview with ABC News.

An official with Kashmir’s state-owned telecom company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., said engineers were still working on shutting down the 22 sites, including Facebook and Twitter, but so far had been unable to do so without freezing the internet across the Himalayan region. Meanwhile, 3G and 4G cellphone service has been suspended for more than a week, but slower 2G service is still available.

Residents of Srinagar, the region’s main city, have been frantically downloading documents, software and applications onto their smartphones which would likely be able to circumvent the social media block once it goes into effect. Many expressed relief to still have internet access early Thursday morning.

While the government has axed internet access in Kashmir in previous attempts to prevent unrest, this is the first time they have done so in response to the circulation of videos and photos showing alleged military abuse. Criticizers have taken to the internet to mock the government — a Facebook post by Kashmiri writer Arif Ayaz Parrey said the ban showed “the Indian government has decided to take on the collective subversive wisdom of cyberspace humanity.”

https://www.facebook.com/arifayaz.parrey/posts/1400382050032362

An international journalists’ rights group urged Indian authorities to immediately revoke the “sweeping censorship of social media,” saying it “will bring neither peace nor order” in the region.

Kashmiris have been uploading videos and photos of alleged abuse for some years, but several recently posted clips, captured in the days surrounding a violence-plagued local election on April 9, have proven to be especially powerful and have helped to intensify anti-India protests.

Protests and clashes are an almost daily occurrence along the Kashmir border, where the military forces from both nations try to hold the other responsible for insurgence. Disputes over control of the Kashmir region, claimed by both India and Pakistan, have sparked two wars between the nations since 1947.