The May 4 video from Manipur showing two Kuki-Zo women being stripped and paraded by a mob, which went viral last week, has opened a new front on the debate over the fight against Internet shutdowns. Opponents of shutdowns, such as civil rights groups, now argue that on top of having massive effects on work, education, and daily life, shutdowns can prevent information on atrocities from being discovered.
Security forces and experts have, however, arrived at a completely opposite conclusion: to them, the video, which went viral two months after it was recorded, vindicates the need for “calibrated and nuanced” shutdowns in such situations “limited in time period and space”, as their dissemination could further inflame the situation.
To rights groups like the New Delhi-based Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) and the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), which have always held that blanket communications shutdowns are a disproportionate measure, the viral video cements the case against imposing such restrictions. The video shows “how internet shutdowns, instead of curbing spread of violence, are in fact a tool that helps evade accountability for heinous human rights violations,” the IFF said in a statement.
