As a Senior Information Controls Fellow, Kris worked with the SFLC.in to investigate the politics behind internet shutdowns in India.
While India is the world’s largest democracy, year after year it also holds the dubious record of having the highest number of internet shutdowns worldwide. Through in-depth fieldwork in two Indian states where shutdowns are often issued, as well as through analysing internet shutdown data from the SFLC.in, Kris’ project examined the politics behind India’s internet shutdowns. While the Indian authorities present the shutdowns as a response to a law and order problem caused by online misinformation, Kris’ research emphasizes the shutdowns’ political dimensions and shows that they are integral part of the worrying state that India’s democracy currently is in. The findings were summarized in a blog post on OTF’s website. The full paper entitled Understanding India’s Troubling Rise in Internet Shutdowns: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis can be found here.
Prior to this fellowship, Kris worked as a researcher in the project “Authoritarianism in a Global Age” at the University of Amsterdam.
