Internet and text messaging services were suspended by government order in parts of India’s capital Delhi on Thursday.
The unprecedented shutdown came as hundreds of people tried to hold more rallies in protest at a new citizenship law seen as discriminating against Muslims, in defiance of a police ban on large gatherings.
A major reason for the shutdown is that protesters, many of them students, have used social media such as Instagram and TikTok to wage an online war against the citizenship law.
Internet services also remained shut in the north-eastern state of Assam where protests against the citizenship law first erupted more than a week ago.