Ban on Adult Sites? Many adult sites inaccessible from Indian ISPs
Most of Internet service providers had started blocking major popular adult sites through out the nation. It has been now cleared that the government had ordered to ISPs to block more than 857 adult websites which are running openly.
As a source with respect to the matter, The Economic Times report said that, “The telecom department sent an order to block 857 websites on Friday. That is why only few ISPs have blocked these over the nation.” And, here’s a new ‘ban’.
The report also said that ‘the industry was not completely in favor to help the government to block adult sites until it comes up with clearer definitions from all around that what can be blocked and what cannot, it also depend on court too’.
In previous week, Reddit India thread has also reported, disclosed strong reaction from netizens on adult web sites which are being inaccessible and are used to show a blank page or kind of messages, “These site has been blocked as per the official instructions of Authority.”
Users of MTNL, BSNL and ACT broadband have reported that adult websites are n’t opening on their systems whereas on other hand Airtel, Tata Photon and cable internet users are have not any such kind of issues till date. As per Legally India, on one of Delhi’s broadband providers Spectranet, 11 out of the world’s 13 most popular and known adult sites are made inaccessible to all users.
When you try to verify it on an MTNL Mumbai connection and known sites such as Pornhub and Youporn, XVIDEOS can not be opened. It looks like the service provider had blocked sites with terms such as ‘pornography’ in its title of web sites.
Court Orders
“The meeting of the Cyber Regulation Advisory Committee was triggered by a directive from the Supreme Court, which is hearing a petition by a lawyer seeking to ban such content related videos as it leads to “major activities such as: rape, molestation of women, harassment the report more adds. On July 8, the matter also came to light before a bench to the Chief Justice.
As per, Supreme Court order, adults who are watching these clips in their home or in private room is not a crime. In fact Chief Justice HL Dattu has even used to add that it violates the Right to Personal Liberty.
As per report stated in The Hindu, Chief Justice HL Dattu had said, “Such kinds of orders cannot be passed by any court. Somebody can also come to the court by saying look I have crossed 18 year of age and now how can you stop me from watching from these clips within my room. It is also violation of Article 21 [right to personal liberty].”
A Vodafone customer belong to Kolkata said that “When I checked last night it was opening well, but in morning time it looks like all the famous adult offering sites has been blocked. The many customer reported that adult sites are not reachable from Alliance Broadband service through out in Kolkata.
Many users across the country told HT about landing up on a blank page. (HT File Photo)
A Hathway Broadband user from Delhi says that that while looking for Redtube.com and Pornhub.com,Xhamster.com, closed with blank pages.
One of BSNL customer from Chennai tell no padult clips are accessible on his mobile via 3G internet pack or similar connection.
ACT Broadband customer from Bangalore and Hyderabad and MTNL customer in Delhi and Mumbai also tell that they too are used to get type of empty pages while try to open these sites.
Moreover, Airtel, MTS and Tikona customer says HT that adult sites have good access.
HT sends emails to Vodafone and Department of Telecommunications looking for response from official side, and this is keep awaiting.
In the past
Banning adult sites isn’t a decision which is taken by government once and has been looking at the ways to proceed with so for some time now. Through previous year, a meeting was organized have focused on about how deal with pornography matter arises in India, and how the government could make this that access to kind of sites must be completely banned. Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad was present, with Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-IN) head Gulshan Rai, officials from DoT, Deity, CBI, and representatives of industry bodies such as IAMAI, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, CII. ISPs are ordered to make a proper list of such sites which can be banned.
According to the, the minutes of the meeting, it was shown that sites blocks can not be work in India while the sites are hosted outside and firewalls mostly used to bypassed through using proxy servers. Rajesh Chharia of ISPAI tell that India would need a list of blacklisted pornography sites by autonomous bodies / NGOs.
A report from last year had raised out that Subho Ray of IAMAI suggested “filtering of pornographic material at the level of cable stations before such content reaches ISPs” as well as hotline to report “objectionable websites.”
In 2013, Department of Telecom (DoT) had asked Internet service providers to go forward and block access to near about 39 websites that allowed candidates to sell pornographic content. The ban encompassed forums where explicit images were shared and downloaded and URL to such images shared. However, the central government has expressed its inability to block all international pornographic content in India owing to technological and legal stones.
What next
Many of us agree with it, that is is right to treat the issue of child pornography and revenge porn seriously, the idea of a web filter that is being proposed increases fear that it can’t restrict the pornography. The government has a proper list of more than 850 web sites, but it grown questions on what else can be included in pornography in future. Like cartoons, GIFs, Images that are often NSFW (but not necessarily porn), get banned in the future? Despite it being attach them with pornography? Would nude pictures also get banned? How about lingerie ads? The list of material or content what could included as pornography or anti-Indian culture is never define.
Twitter was quick to react to this
The conversation on Twitter was divergent, with some supporting the blocking and other ridiculing and criticizing it.
Can India ban Adult Sites?
As per data from Pornhub, which is one of world’s famous and largest adult content or videos providing sites, Indians are among the most “prolific customers” of internet pornography, as a result of 40% of its 14.2 billion viewers. Mizoram saw most adult and Delhi finishes a close second, as per report revealed, also Canadian Indian actress names Sunny Leone is most searched as porn star through out the country.
Reddit customer Bassist Eddie said on Sunday’s development that, “First, we have to know if it’s really government who has banned such material, because Supreme Court has also denied to ban them, telling that it is also violation according to the Article 21, the right to personal liberty.”
He was adding to what the Supreme Court said last month: Is a person browsing pornographic sites within the his house committing any crime?