Yet again, the Jammu-Kashmir administration on Wednesday, extended its ban on the high-speed internet till 8 July 2020, limiting it to 2G speed only. Moreover, it stated that 2G speed internet has been provided to post-paid sim cards and provided to pre-paid sim cards after verification of norms. The government has maintained that the continued ban was in place to prevent infiltration attempts and curbing fake news, adding that neither education or COVID-related activities have been hampered. J&K: High-speed internet ban extended till July 8 SC asks Centre to examine…
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Technology
Global Internet Shutdown score is not good news for Kashmir
The Stanford University study says that Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and J&K account for nearly 75% of all recorded shutdowns in India, while J&K alone comprises about 47%. Internet shutdowns in Kashmir, perhaps, remain the missing pages in the narrative of a Digital India. A country attempting a digital revolution, while also globally leading the internet shutdown track record, undisputedly, reflects the irony in the world’s largest democracy. According to a study at the Stanford University (Of Blackouts and Bandhs: The Strategy and Structure of Disconnected Protest in India), India has…
Read MoreDown for hours, Facebook, Instagram suffer a major global outage
Facebook and Instagram on Wednesday suffered a major global outage. Users were unable to access the two platforms on their smartphones as well as on desktop. Messenger is also down for several users. Some users complained that they could not log into their Facebook accounts. Instagram and Messenger users also faced similar problems. Some also complained that the News Feed was not refreshing at all. WhatsApp is also partially down for some users as they are unable to access some key features such as voice notes. Facebook said it was…
Read MoreToday World Wide Web turns 30
Today, the web completed 30 years on Earth. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web (WWW) on March 12, 1989 at CERN, a research organization near Geneva. CERN is now giving users access to the first website created. The first website can be accessed through the URL “info.cern.ch” which also happens to be the original address. Titled “World Wide Web”, the website has hyperlinks to different documents related to the web. Here, users can find out what is hypertext, a summary of the project, software products and help with the…
Read MoreIndo-Pak tensions reach cyberspace, several websites hit
Hackers from Pakistan attacked over 90 Indian government websites and critical systems within hours of the Pulwama suicide strike by a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist in which 40 soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed, senior officials in the security establishment said on condition of anonymity. “There was an unusual surge of activity, attempts to breach systems,” one of these officials added. So ferocious was the attack that India had to resort to “offensive measures” in the cyber domain to counter them, a second official said. The officials added…
Read MoreSo far 52 times Cyber curfew imposed in Jammu & Kashmir
The militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir has earned the dubious distinction of witnessing the highest number of internet shutdowns in the country. Under the standard operating procedures, the area-specific internet shutdowns in Kashmir are usually ordered by the authorities to avoid a law and order problem following encounters. Locals, however, consider these measures as an infringement of their rights. A website internetshutdowns.in which keeps track of internet shutdowns across India, claims the internet services were shut down for a total 112 times in J&K from 2012 to 2018. As per the…
Read MoreVodafone, Idea completes merger, creates India’s largest mobile operator
The merger of Idea Cellular and Vodafone India has been completed, creating India’s biggest telecom service provider with over 408 million subscribers, the two companies said on Friday. A new board has been constituted for the merged entity “Vodafone Idea Ltd’ with 12 directors (including six independent directors) and Kumar Mangalam Birla as its Chairman. The board has appointed Balesh Sharma as the CEO, the companies said in a joint statement. The combination will have all India revenue market share of 32.2% and take the numero uno slot in nine…
Read MoreGmail will soon let you send emails with an expiry date
Google recently confirmed it is working on redesigning its popular Gmail service. However, it’s not just the design that will be new as it looks like the service will get new features as well. One of the features has been unearthed by TechCrunch. The report says that Gmail will also be getting the ability to self-destruct an email. As seen in the screenshot shared by the report, the email after a specified time becomes unreadable. Users can send an email with an expiry date by clicking on the small lock…
Read MoreZuckerberg says sorry after allegations of Cambridge Analytica data misuse
Facebook is facing growing scrutiny in Europe and the US about allegations that political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed user information to build profiles on American voters which were later used to help elect US President Donald Trump in 2016. Breaking five days of silence, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for a “major breach of trust,” admitted mistakes and outlined steps to protect user data in light of a privacy scandal involving a Trump-connected data-mining firm. “I am really sorry that happened,” Zuckerberg said of the scandal involving data…
Read MoreHuawei, Airtel conduct India’s first successful 5G network trial in India
Airtel says that during the test trial over 3Gbps of user throughput was achieved. Chinese technology giant Huawei and telecom services provider Bharti Airtel on Friday announced to have successfully conducted 5G network trial under a test set-up in India. The trial was conducted at Airtel’s Network Experience Centre in Manesar (Gurugram), the company said in a statement. “We are moving quickly to begin collaboration towards 5G interoperability and development testing (IODT). We look forward to work closely with our partners for developing a robust 5G ecosystem in India,” said…
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