The Indian government has ordered ISPs to block 857 adult, porn and dating sites for contravening the country’s moral law.
Over the weekend, internet users in India began noticing that a number of adult sites were inaccessible, replaced by messages saying sites were “blocked as per the instructions of Competent Authority.”
And in an order dated 31/07/2015, the government’s Department of Electronics & Information Technology requested the Department of Telecoms to “notify Intermediaries (ISPs) for disablement of the following URLs”.
The declaration then listed 857 websites that should be blocked, which includes sites like POF.com, Brazzers.com, PornHub.com, LiveJasmine.com, Flirt4Free.com and AdultFriendFinder.com.
The document, leaked on The Centre for Internet & Society, said the order was given under section 79(3)(b) of the 2000 Information Technology Act, which was related to Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India.
This article references things which “affect the operation of any existing law” related to, amongst other things, “decency or morality”.
The move has been denounced as a threat to online freedom by many, but government sources have insisted the blocks are temporary, and come ahead of the creation of full regulatory oversight around adult content.
A spokesperson at the Department of Telecommunications, NN Kaul, told Reuters: “Free and open access to porn websites has been brought under check. We don’t want them to become a social nuisance.”
The government has apparently enforced the ban because of concerns about child pornography and people viewing porn in public.
A DoT source told the Times of India: “We are very clear that there should be no policing if someone watches porn in private. But there is need to have necessary safeguards against viewing in public or viewing certain types of content, especially when children are involved.”
The order was placed last Friday, but came into effect yesterday, with government sources saying it will take a few days to block all 857 sites.
There have been many vocal opponents to the ban in India, including Bollywood filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, who said in a series of tweets:
“All in all any deprivation of personal liberty of an individual by a government amounts to a regression of social progress of that country. The best way to tackle a presumed menace is to bring it out in open rather than pushing it under the rug or pretending it doesn’t exist.
“To ban porn saying it will be seen by who shouldn’t see it is like saying to stop traffic because there will be accidents. Government should work on finding ways to steer the content not to go in wrong directions rather than to block it.”
All in all any deprivation of personal liberty of an individual by a government amounts to a regression of social progress of that country
– Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) August 1, 2015
History proved it multiple times that if anytime anything is banned it will just gather strength in the underground
– Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) August 1, 2015
The best way to tackle a presumed menace is to bring it out in open rather than pushing it under the rug or pretending it doesn’t exist
– Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) August 1, 2015
It’s a proven fact by international surveys that instead of fuelling sexual crimes porn actually provides safer outlet for sexual repression
– Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) August 1, 2015
The government has 30 days before it officially reveals why it has blocked the sites.
Read some more reactions to the porn block below:
Porn ban is anti-freedom, impractical, not enforceable. Politically not very smart too. avoidable. Let’s not manage people’s private lives.
– Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) August 3, 2015
Would #Kamasutra books be banned for propagating #Unnaturalsex ? #pornban – Onir (@IamOnir) August 3, 2015
Don’t ban porn. Ban men ogling, leering, brushing past, groping, molesting, abusing, humiliating and raping women. Ban non-consent. Not sex.
– Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) August 3, 2015