New Delhi: In what seemed to be a mysterious attempt by the Government of India to ban the viewing of pornography in India, was confirmed a while ago when reports were received of Indian Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) having received a notice from the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to ban 857 sites, most of them including porn sites.
A senior manager of an ISP, who did not want to be named, toldLegally India, “It’s a list of 857 URLs. Most of the sites [on the list] are pornographic. I would say 100% of the sites.”
Another well know news forum reported that three telecom operators have also confirmed the block, which would take effect from Monday.
However, as reports mentioned earlier, users of Airtel, Tikona & YOU broadband are still able to access these sites. It seems like the block would take some time to take its effect.
Earlier Report:
Mysterious porn ban in India floods Twitter; Govt involvement suspected
If twitter is to be believed, pornography sites have been blocked by Internet service providers. Users suspect a government hand in it.
In a discussion on the social media platform – Reddit – users said that they landed on blank pages while trying to access porn sites, and some of them came across the message: “The site has been blocked as per the instructions of Competent Authority.”
There was no official confirmation of the clamp down, but over the weekend, the ban seems to have become comprehensive, which can only mean a government instruction.
Film director Ram Gopal Verma said that given its popularity, any government which owned up to banning porn would lose the next election.
Strangely not all ISP’s are blocking access to the sites according to reports Vodafone, MTNL and BSNL are among those blocking access, The Hindustan Times reported, but Airtel, MTS and Tikona users are not facing similar problems as of now.
According toLegally India, onSpectranet, 11 out of the world’s 13 most popular porn sites were not accessible, but two websites were functioning normally.
Ban on access would be in contraindication of a recent Supreme Court observation that it will not interfere with adults who want to watch porn within the four walls of their houses.
“Such interim orders cannot be passed by this court. Somebody may come to the court and say look I am above 18 and how can you stop me from watching it within the four walls of my room. It is a violation of Article 21,” Chief Justice H.L. Dattu said, The Hindu reported.
#PornBan was a Twitter trend on Sunday morning.
