India’s government has directed Internet Service providers (ISPs) in the country to block more than 800 porn sites as reported by a local newspaper. These ISPs allegedly have confirmed receiving these letters from the ministry to block these websites.
Funny enough, according to insights released by Pornhub in 2014, India ranks 5th Worldwide by the number of daily visitors and 4th on the number of daily visitors on mobile. It seems the government wants to change this image.
An Indian newspaper, Hindustan Times quoted some sources which said “Certain websites have been reviewed and found to be spreading anti-social activities as hyperlinks from these websites, some of them were pornographic, so we have sent letters to internet service providers to block them. Th action has been taken in reference to section 79 of the IT act“. The newspaper also had an online poll if they supported the move and the results were conclusive: Two thirds of the over 8,500 who voted were not in favour of the directive.
Indians are clearly not amused and have taken to social media sites like Reddit to rant about the new directive. They are complaining on grounds of “censorship” or “violation of Article 21 of the Indian constitution” among others. Another subreddit posted a leaked PDF of the alleged order from the Department of Technology which contains a list of the 857 websites that should be blocked on “morality” grounds.
According to Reuters, last month India’s Supreme Court apparently refused to honour an outright ban after hearing a petition which said that Internet porn fuelled sex crime, which is a problem in the country.
Source: Hindustan Times
