'SAYING THAT internet was just used to watch “dirty films (gandi filmein)” in Jammu and Kashmir, NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat said on Saturday that suspension of services in the region, following the government’s decision to revoke J&K’s special status under Article 370 on August 5 last year, did not have a “significant” effect on the economy...'
'While limited Internet and mobile connectivity services have begun in certain parts of the Jammu and Kashmir Union territory, residents will only be able to access 153 government-approved websites. Details of this “whitelist” – which was first announced on January 14, when Internet service providers were ordered to install the necessary firewalls – have now become public.
'The unintended consequence of the Supreme Court’s order on Internet Shutdowns in Kashmir — where it put down accountability norms for Internet shutdowns, and said that some essential websites should be accessible, is that it has given rise to the creation of the Great Indian Firewall: filters that control what users can and cannot access online.
'In one of the most sensational stories to have come out of Kashmir in recent times, a police officer was arrested on Saturday along with two Hizbul Mujahideen militants, one of whom is wanted for killing migrant workers. Davinder Singh is a deputy superintendent of the Jammu and Kashmir police. He has served as a counterinsurgency specialist for nearly two decades and has been awarded a gallantry medal... Normally, a story of this import would be picked up by leading TV news channels on primetime, especially our nationalist news anchors.
'Historian Irfan Habib was slapped with a notice by an Aligarh Civil Court advocate for taking a jibe at the Prime Minister during a speech at the Aligarh Muslim University, calling him “illiterate”.
'Afzal Guru had in an affidavit named J&K police officer Davinder Singh as setting him up to take a Parltt Attack accused "Mohammad" to Delhi, rent a flat & buy a car for him. Singh is now said to have been "caught with Hizbul terrorists on way to Delhi"... Davinder Singh admitted he tortured Afzal. Afzal was hanged for doing what Singh coerced him to do. Today Singh is said to be caught "headed to Delhi with terrorists". Who protected Singh? Who are Singh's shadowy bosses? Why wasn't Singh's role in Parltt Attack ever probed?...'
'Two photographs of JNSU president Aishe Ghosh have been juxtaposed together to portray that she plastered different arms at different times. Thus suggesting that her injuries are fake. Ghosh was injured during violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) where masked goons attacked students on January 5-6. Shefali Vaidya was among those who made the allegation but later took it down... RSS-affiliated ABVP’s national organising secretary Ashish Chauhan also shared the images. His tweet, now deleted, was retweeted by Dr Vijay Chauthaiwale, in-charge of BJP’s foreign affairs department...
'India lost over $1.3 billion in internet shutdowns across the country — lasting 4,196 hours in 2019 — making it the third-most economically affected country after Iraq and Sudan, says a new study. The report, titled The Global Cost of Internet Shutdowns, in 2019 by internet research firm Top10VPN, worked on calculating the data in major regions of the world using the COST tool. The tool was developed by internet monitoring NGO Netblocks and advocacy group The Internet Society, and uses indicators from the World Bank, ITU, Eurostat, and US Census...'
'On Tuesday, actor Deepika Padukone attended a protest meeting at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University to express solidarity with students who had been injured in violence unleashed by a masked mob on Sunday. Many have blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, for planning the violence. Padukone’s gesture irked some people, who took to social media to make #BoycottChhapaak one of the top trends on Twitter.
'If reality spoke for itself, Prasar Bharati would probably dispute it. On January 6, a day after mob violence in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, India's state broadcaster spun a blatantly false angle on it. This was fact-checked by AltNews, but Prasar Bharati would not back down... In short, the state broadcaster of India — itself borne out of the fears around autonomy following ruthless state propaganda during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency regime — is now peddling demonstrably false information online. Unsurprisingly, this information suits the position of the current establishment.
