'WhatsApp accounts belonging to Kashmiri users have begun to expire as the region completed 120 days of an internet blockade on Tuesday. The social media platform deletes accounts that have stayed inactive for that long. Several Twitter users shared screenshots showing that friends and family members based in Kashmir had exited WhatsApp groups they had been part of – most likely without their knowledge. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the disappearances from WhatsApp groups were the result of the company’s policy on inactive accounts.
'To restore their internet connections, which have been suspended for four months now, companies have to give the government a signed bond saying that internet usage will be for “business purposes” only. They must also promise to share all the “contents” and “infrastructure” of the internet as and when required by the “security agencies”. The bond, a copy of which is with The Wire, consists of six points, including that no encrypted file containing any sort of videos or photos will be uploaded.
'The police here have registered an FIR against an Aligarh Muslim University professor for sharing posts on social media that allegedly hurt the morale of the security forces in the Valley. The FIR cited an “inappropriate post” in which the assistant professor, whose husband is based in Kashmir, referred to the communication blackout in the Valley immediately after the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. “Sach mein sampark toot jana kitna khatarnak aur dukhad hota hai, chahe Chandrayaan ho ya Kashmir,” the post said on the “pain” caused by losing contact.
'Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a week-old wave of online threats and hate messages targeting this well-known Indian journalist and calls on the authorities to shed light on the possible complicity of members of the police force... It began when Rana Ayyub, who is nowadays a Washington Post columnist, posted a cryptic message on Twitter on 8 November about the ruling that India’s supreme court was due to issue the next day on a fraught 30-year-old dispute between Hindus and Muslims over a religious site in the northern city of Ayodhya.
'Following severe criticism for arresting two law students under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Kerala government has announced that it will set up a high court judge-appointed committee to look into the charges. According to a report in Asianet, the state has agreed to provide permission for prosecution only after the committee submits its report. The two men — Allan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal — are both CPI(M) workers in Kozhikode, according to a report in New Indian Express. The duo was picked up by police at Pantheerankavu on the night of November 1.
'Twitter has been accused of bowing to Indian censorship and suppressing freedom of speech in Kashmir, after nearly one million tweets were removed. Almost 100 accounts were also made inaccessible to locals in the last two years, spurring claims that Twitter is contradicting the very values it purports to uphold. The findings were revealed in a study by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday, showing that Twitter agreed to block more accounts in the region than in every other country combined...'
'On August 10, 2018, the Indian government informed Twitter that an account belonging to Kashmir Narrator, a magazine based in Jammu and Kashmir, was breaking Indian law. The magazine had recently published a cover story on a Kashmiri militant who fought against Indian rule. By the end of the month, Indian police had arrested the journalist who wrote it, Aasif Sultan, and Twitter had withheld the magazine’s account in India, blocking local access to more than 5,000 tweets. As of October 2019, Sultan was still in prison, facing terrorism-related charges that CPJ has repeatedly condemned.
'In a move that openly violates the constitutional protection of free speech in India, political detainees in Kashmir, including top leaders, are being forced to sign a bond that will bar them from speaking or commenting on the “recent events” in the state as a condition of their release.
'It seems like the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), believes in doing away with cultural diversity and crushing cultural dissent. This can be seen in the recent move by a BJP MP from Mysuru, Pratap Simha, preventing an event called ‘Mahisha Dasara’, which was scheduled to be held on September 27. Mahisha Dasara is an event organised by various dalit organisations, progressive organisations from Karnataka as a counter to the Dasara celebration in the Mysuru palace and elsewhere in the state.
'Four Kashmiri students at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have been served show-cause notices by the authorities for holding a protest at the campus, said the official sources on Friday. The action comes a day after a group of Kashmiri students had taken out a march from the AMU library to the Bab-e-Syed gate and raised slogans against the alleged atrocities by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir during the past one month...'
