Kashmir has never been a zone of political conflict, it has always been about a more insidious, sophisticated kind of control, one that goes beyond military brutality and relies on weapons that never murmur but carry very real power—those of digital technologies. India’s systematic suppression of digital rights in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) constitutes what is only properly referred to as digital apartheid.

Kashmir, known as the new ‘Silicon Valley of South Asia,’ has become one of the most digitally repressed regions in the world.

A state-controlled war of erasure, isolation, and suppression of its entire population using digital means. Kashmir, known as the new ‘Silicon Valley of South Asia’, has become one of the most digitally repressed regions of the world as the concept of ‘E Occupation’ comes into play. When the occupation is based on electronic surveillance, censorship, and internet shutdowns, this is not about controlling narratives; it is about total enslavement by depriving the people of their capability to be informed, communicate, and express their ideas politically.

Since the revocation of Article 370 in August 2019, the country has also experienced the longest internet blackout ever imposed on a so-called democracy. For nearly 18 months, Education and healthcare were affected, people were cut off from the world, traveling came to a halt, and basic social interactions and business were disrupted.

The partial restoration of internet access was to be followed by heavy restrictions, monitoring, and censorship. The privilege of being able to have high-speed internet has remained so. It has, and can still be arbitrarily given or taken away precisely for political convenience. Thus, digital suffocation ensures that Kashmiris stay in the dark where they cannot mobilize, document human rights abuses, or even communicate without fear.

As the Indian state poses, it is merely that of national security, but in reality, the rules are merely used as an instrument of control, thereby preventing any form of resistance — peaceful or not. Those who hail social media platforms as tools of empowerment are fooling themselves. For Kashmiri voices, the social platforms have become the battleground that systematically erases them.

Social media platforms have become battlegrounds where Kashmiri voices are systematically erased under state-controlled digital suppression.

Major independent news outlets like The Kashmir Walla have been blocked from working, wiped out of their archives, and their journalists arrested. Reporters who dare to challenge the state version continue to be relentlessly intimidated, incarcerated under draconian laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), and threatened by violence and even oftentimes by the state. The truth can be reported or not, and the result is chilling; get in prison or the state propaganda wins.

While India boasts about being the ‘world’s largest democracy’, its despotism in Kashmir cannot be mirrored in the global spectacle. However, Kashmiris in general have been deprived systematically of democratic principles such as free speech, human rights, equal opportunity, etc. Independent journalism in Kashmir, as well as in other parts of India, has been an increasingly authoritarian clampdown perception in India, with the 2023 World Press Freedom Index having listed India at 161 out of 180 countries.

Just as its standing in the country’s Rule of Law Index has collapsed in line with its drift towards majoritarian repression. Not only does India claim to be a human rights champion on the global stage, but it in fact perpetuates a different story — one of unending punishment, cut-off, apartheid, and Kashmiris.

That digital repression is not limited to Kashmir. Over the past years, authoritarian forms of governments have weaponized the very technology that enables Dissent globally. Social media has also been accused of systematically banning the dissemination of pro-Palestinian resistance content in Palestine, and of shutting down the internet to disrupt co-ordinated Sudanese protests.

The military junta has frequently shut down the internet in Myanmar, to stifle pro-democracy movements. In Kashmir, too, Big Tech like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have played a role in Kashmiri content silencing by removing content critical of Indian state policies. This digital apartheid was similarly enabled by governments and corporations that have more readily supported diplomatic and economic ties than basic human rights.

Big Tech companies, instead of upholding free speech, are complicit in silencing Kashmiris by complying with India’s censorship policies.

IOJK is no more a regional crisis but it is a human rights emergency that requires immediate international intervention. To let one entire population be systematically silenced, the world cannot afford to remain unable to do anything about it. India’s illegal occupation of Kashmir, which has been regarded by the United Nations as a disputed territory for over the last seven decades, cannot be justified by digital oppression.

International law gives people the right to self-determination and that cannot be erased with a keystroke. Whatever may be restored to statehood or promises of elections cannot replace Kashmiris’ fundamental rights including the right to free speech, and political participation.

National as well as international actors, including human rights organizations, independent media, and global policymakers have to act urgently. There should be advocacy efforts so that India is held accountable when it comes to being a violator of digital freedoms. Free expression principles have to be applied to big Tech companies pressured to stop acting as enforcers of state censorship.

There is a need to amplify the voices from Kashmir and make sure the stories of Kashmiri people is heard, despite India, the aggressor, trying to erase the voices. Internet shutdowns in Kashmir are not just an aspect of digital apartheid. It is the practice of reducing an entire people into oblivion. This is a test of conscience in the global village, and history will record who does what.

Internet shutdowns in Kashmir are not just an aspect of digital apartheid—they are an attempt to erase an entire people from history.

A struggle for territorial sovereignty only is not enough. Kashmir’s fight is about the right to live and exist free of repression and subject to such an abominable act as an enforced attempt at pillage. When digital platforms become a form of information, denying people access to them would essentially be an attempt to erase them from history. This is a silent genocide, and the world must not take part in it. It calls for ending digital fascism, disbanding E-Occupation, and only then allowing Kashmir to speak.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.