NEW DELHI — The government in India’s Jammu and Kashmir State ordered internet service providers in the restive Kashmir valley to block social networking services there on Wednesday, an unusually harsh measure to counteract escalating waves of protests and violence in the region.

In the order, the government notified internet service providers to block the transmission of messages on 22 social networking services, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, for a month, or until further orders were issued.

The move illuminated a government increasingly vexed by civilian protests, by a newly budding homegrown militancy in south Kashmir and by a series of video clips, distributed on social media, depicting confrontations between civilians and Indian security forces.

The order, signed by the principal secretary in the state’s Home Department, contended that social media was being used by “anti-national and subversive elements” for “vitiating peace and tranquillity” in the state.