Despite the government orders to all telecom service providers to halt 22 social media networking sites in Kashmir Valley, the companies, including BSNL, failed to shut these sites on Thursday.
Sources in the telecom companies told The Hindu that “it was a difficult task to shut these sites within 24 hours.” Many companies have hired services of technicians outside J&K to enforce the ban.
The authorities on Wednesday invoked Indian Telegraph Act 1885 to suspended services to all major social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp. However, all these apps and sites were functioning on Thursday.
“We have asked the authorities to provide us more time to implement the orders. It’s a difficult task and is being done for the first time in the country,” said an official of a telecom company.
Airtel, Aircel, Voadafone and BSNL are main service provides in the Valley.
Sources said the telecom companies have also shared their concern with the authorities and claimed that their revenue will see a sharp decline due to the government move as data consumption remained the mainstay of service providers. “We will see a drastic decrease in data consumption,” said a private telecom company official.
Meanwhile, 3G and 4G services have resumed on mobile telephony. The services were blocked immediately after the April 9 by-elections when eight civilians died in security forces’ firing.
Call to revoke order
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based watchdog, has asked India to immediately revoke the one-month ban on social media. “The sweeping censorship of social media under the pretext of ‘maintaining peace and order’ will bring neither peace nor order,” Steven Butler, Asia Programme coordinator at CPJ said.
