The Indian government is going tough on porn, as it has directed Internet service providers (ISPs) to block 827 websites that host pornographic content following an order by the Uttarakhand high court, said a PTI Report.
While the Uttarakhand high court has asked to block 857 websites, the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity) found 30 portals without any pornographic content.
A high court imposed a sweeping order which will ban people from accessing a whopping 827 porn websites.
ISPs have been told to take “immediate necessary action” to block the websites after the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) issued the Department of Telecom (DoT) with a notice to do so, Indian news agency Press Trust of India (PTI reports).
All providers must immediately remove pornography so they can comply with the “Hon’ble High Court order,” issued at the end of September, the DoT said in its instructions for the servers.
It comes just after Nobel laureate and prominent Indian rights activist Kailash Satyarthi called for a strong legislation to crackdown on online child pornography amid concerns it may encourage sexual abuse offences.
In a bid to exemplify the grave repercussions of online pornography, he described how a 12-year-old boy and his friends had watched a porn movie the night before they gang-raped his sister.
“The business of online pornographic films is flourishing unabated,” Satyarthi, who previously blasted child pornography for “creating so many evils in India,” said.
According to Meity, Uttarakhand HC has ordered blocking of 857 websites contained in an old notice of DoT dated July 31, 2015.
To recall, in August 2015 too India called for a online porn ban when Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directed ISPs to block around 850 websites citing Section 79 of IT Act. However in that year, government eventually withdrew the ban from all websites.
Reliance Jio had already banned hundreds of popular adult websites in India including Xvideos and Pornhub. Although, there is no official statement from Jio on the development so far but many Jio users pointed out on Reddit that several porn websites are no longer available on Jio network.
Since the ministry had asked all the telecom operators to ban these websites, more telcos might follow Jio’s footsteps in the coming days.
Source: IndianWeb2
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