Reliance Jio—Reliance Jio routinely complied with Indian government internet shutdown orders disproportionately affecting Kashmir, Manipur and protest regions
Reliance Jio, as India's largest telecom operator, routinely complied with Indian government section-69A and Telegraph Act internet-shutdown orders that according to Access Now and SFLC.in tracking placed India atop global rankings for the largest single-country source of internet shutdowns every year since 2018. The 2019-2021 Kashmir shutdown (the longest internet shutdown in a democracy at the time), the 2023-2024 Manipur shutdowns, and shutdowns during the 2020-2021 farmer protests and 2023 anti-Adani protests all involved Jio compliance with shutdown demands. Jio did not publicly challenge any shutdown order.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authoritarian Compliance | +toward | secondary | -0.50 |
| Democratic Institutions | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Open Internet & Web Freedom | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Press Freedom | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.161 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.57)× agency (compelled ×0.25)
Evidence (1 signal)
Access Now KeepItOn coalition documented India as world's largest source of internet shutdowns with Jio compliance
Access Now's KeepItOn annual reports and SFLC.in tracking documented India's status as the world's largest source of internet shutdowns every year since 2018, with Reliance Jio as the largest operator complying with shutdown orders affecting Kashmir, Manipur and protest regions without public challenge.