Government bans porn

folarin okunola

August 3, 2015 11:30 AM

It appears that the blocks are indeed taking place based on a government order, and it seems like the telecom operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been asked to block a whopping 857 porn sites.

Indian internet users have complained about some porn sites being blocked under directives from the government

Over the weekend, a lot of Indian Internet users on sites like Reddit and Twitter claimed that they were unable to access popular porn sites.

NDTV Gadgets reports that it was able to independently confirm that customers of MTNL and Hathway in Mumbai got a blank page when visiting websites like Youporn and Pornhub, but websites seem to be loading just fine on fellow carrier Airtel in Delhi, causing some confusion about why exactly these sites are being blocked on some ISPs.

According to NDTV Gadgets, it appears that the blocks are indeed taking place based on a government order, and it seems like the telecom operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been asked to block a whopping 857 porn sites, in what might be the largest blocking order ever, in India.

NDTV Gadgets further reports that an ISP confirmed that it received a list of 857 URLs from the Indian Department of Telecommunications on Friday, July 31.

"It's a list of 857 URLs. Most of the sites [on the list] are pornographic. I would say 100% of the sites," a senior manager of one of India's leading ISPs, who did not want to be named, told Legally India.

Later reports have confirmed this development with three other ISPs all saying that the order was received late on Friday, which is why the blocks appear to as they do. The list of URLs that the government has ordered to be blocked is not yet available.

folarin okunola