BEHIND FIREWALLS
Kashmir Life|February 23-29, 2020; Issue 47 Vol 11; ‘I pray to God to give me the stature of Bakshi Sahib’
Initially, it was a battle for coming out of the wrong side of the digital divide. Now with 2G in play, it is the crisis of piercing the firewall. The virtual battle is now involving the law enforces with the VPN developers, reports Khalid Bashir Gura
BEHIND FIREWALLS

It took 167 days for the UT administration in Jammu and Kashmir to restore 2G internet services in a phased manner on January 18, 2020. More than a month later, Kashmir has official access to around 1500 whitelisted websites. The weekly reviews add on innocuous websites but it excludes a million others including the major social networking platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and others. This has led people to make the Virtual Private Network (VPN’s) a new trend.

This has led Kashmir to jump from a complete communication blockade to a life being lived behind the firewalls. It has added a new dimension to the scathing criticism of the government for restricting a service being seen as a fundamental right in most of the civilised world. The trend has unwittingly converted the entire situation in a technology war between the VPN developers, mostly from the West, and the law enforcing agencies. On a daily basis, the internet managers in Kashmir block the software’s and the developers check their capacities to penetrate the market.

SUFFERING PEOPLE

In this game of denial and diversion, people are suffering. Salman Majeed, currently pursuing his masters in engineering at Italy, saw his mother after more than167 days as 2G internet services were restored. “There was a lump in my throat as if million jabbing pins were on it,” Salman said after he virtually saw his parents after more than 5 months using WhatsApp. Unlike him, his mother couldn’t contain tears. “After the internet was snapped, his photos were my sole consolation.”

Suhail Ahmed is working in Qatar. At the peak of lockdown, he used to dial his father’s number 500 times a day. Unable to reach them, he flew home. After meeting his parents, his real crisis was that he could not book his tickets.

This story is from the February 23-29, 2020; Issue 47 Vol 11; ‘I pray to God to give me the stature of Bakshi Sahib’ edition of Kashmir Life.

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This story is from the February 23-29, 2020; Issue 47 Vol 11; ‘I pray to God to give me the stature of Bakshi Sahib’ edition of Kashmir Life.

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