2 minute read
IndIa leads World In CuttInG Internet aCCess for 5th year In roW, WatChdoG says
KASHMIR ReuteRS
INDIAimposed by far the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world in 2022, internet advocacy watchdog Access Now said on Tuesday, as the country topped the list for the fifth successive year.
Advertisement
Out of 187 internet shutdowns globally recorded by Access Now, 84 took place in India, including 49 in Indianadministered Kashmir, the New Yorkbased digital rights advocacy group said in a report published on Tuesday.
“Authorities disrupted internet access at least 49 times in Kashmir due to political instability and violence, includ-
Investors pull around $6 billion out of Binance’s stablecoin
LONDON
ReuteRS ing a string of 16 back-to-back orders for three-day-long curfew-style shutdowns in January and February 2022,” the watchdog report added. Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and archrival Pakistan, which claim the region in full but rule only parts.
Binance’s stablecoin, Binance USD, has seen around $6 billion of outflows following a U.S. regulatory crackdown on the company that issues the token, according to market tracker CoinGecko. Paxos Trust Company, which issues Binance USD, said on Feb. 13 that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had told the company it should have registered the product as a security and is considering taking action against the platform. On the same day, New York’s chief financial regulator said in a consumer alert that it had ordered Paxos to stop creating the token. An NYDFS spokesperson later told Reuters via email that Paxos violated its obligations for “tailored, periodic risk assessments” and due diligence checks on Binance and Binance USD customers needed to stop “bad actors from using the platform”. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that the regulator’s decision meant the market cap of the token would decrease over time On Wednesday, the value of all Binance USD was around $10.5 billion, down from $16.1 billion on Feb. 13, according to market tracker CoinGecko. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that investors have pulled more than $6 billion out of the Binance-branded token in the past month, citing data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen.
In August 2019, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the autonomy of the Muslimmajority state of Jammu and Kashmir, splitting it into two federally administered territories. The government has since regularly imposed communications restrictions on the region on security grounds, which rights groups have condemned and de- scribed as measures to quash dissent. ilitants have battled India’s rule in Kashmir for more than three decades. The South Asian country blames Pakistan for stoking the revolt. Islamabad denies the claims.
Although India once again led the world in internet shutdowns, 2022 marked the first time since 2017 that there were fewer than 100 shutdowns in the country, the watchdog said. Ukraine was second on the list, with the Russian military cutting access to the internet at least 22 times after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 of last year.
“During Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military cut in- ternet access at least 22 times, engaging in cyberattacks and deliberately destroying telecommunications infrastructure,” the watchdog said in its report. Ukraine was followed on the list by Iran where authorities imposed 18 internet shutdowns in 2022 in response to demonstrations against the government. Nationwide anti-government protests erupted in Iran last fall after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody on Sept. 16 last year. Amini was arrested in Tehran by the morality police for flouting the hijab rules, which require women to entirely cover their hair and bodies. She died while in custody.
