NEW DELHI — India’s ISPs have blocked 857 porn sites following a new government order.
According to reports, the order from the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) lists the targeted sites and asks for the "disablement" of 857 URLs under "the provision of section 7913)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 as the content hosted on these websites relate to morality, decency as given in Article 19(2)of the Constitution of India."
Major ISPs that complied with the order include Vodafone, MTNL, ACT, Hathway and BSNL.
Pranesh Prakash, the policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), posted a copy of the order on its website calling it "the largest single order” of its kind.
The DOT’s Department of Electronics and Information Technology directed the ISPs to "take necessary action as per the direction" and have been told to keep the order confidential and not reproduce the compliance letter.
Some of the 857 blocked sites reportedly include PornHub, RedTube, 1IndiaSex.com, AfricanSexVideos.net, and CutePornVideos.com. A number of the sites have been blocked in the past, but not all are porn sites including a popular college humor and social networking site.
A Reddit thread titled, "Are porn sites getting blocked?" spread the word about the blocked sites, causing a social networking outcry against the blockade and ISPs bending to government censorship.
The new ban comes despite last month’s ruling by India’s Supreme Court that shot down an interim order to block all porn sites in the country, saying it can’t stop an adult from exercising his fundamental right to personal liberty to watch porn within the privacy of his room.
