Mobile internet services have been snapped in at least 21 cities in the state of Uttar Pradesh, including in its capital, Lucknow, according to multiple news reports. Mobile internet services have also been suspended in the Mangaluru and Dakshin Kannada districts of Karnataka for 48 hours In UP, the other cities where internet services have been snapped are Bareilly, Aligarh, Ghaziabad, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Sambhal, Meerut, Mau, Kanpur, Hapur, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Muzzafarnagar, Shamli, Unnao, Agra, Sultanpur, Bagpat, Bulandshahr, Azamgarh and Pilibhit. The internet blackout came after protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act allegedly took a violent turn in Lucknow. We have reached out to Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Jio for confirmation. In Lucknow, the internet shutdown was imposed at 3 pm on December 19, and is expected to be in place till 12 pm on December 21, according to a copy of the internet shutdown order, posted by several people on Twitter. https://twitter.com/M_S_Beg/status/1207899316087644166?s=09 The order, which has been issued by the Additional Chief Secretary of UP’s BJP government, Awanish Kumar Awasthi, said that “messaging systems like SMS and WhatsApp and social media system[s] like Facebook and YouTube may be used extensively for the transmission of information like pictures, videos and text that have the potential to inflame passions and thus exacerbate the law and order situation” in the city. SMS services have also been snapped in the city, per the order. In Ghaziabad, the shutdown was imposed at 10 pm yesterday. In Mangaluru and Dakshin Kannada districts of Karnataka, a…
