India orders hundreds of porn sites blocked

AFP, NEW DELHI: India has ordered hundreds of porn sites blocked citing “objectionable” content, a government official said yesterday, kicking off an angry row about freedom of speech in the world’s biggest democracy.
The telecommunications ministry has directed Internet service providers (ISPs) to block 857 websites, in the government’s first major crackdown on online pornography.
“We have written to the ISPs asking them to control free and open access to objectionable websites,” N.N. Kaul, a spokesman at the telecommunications department,  told AFP.
Since the weekend, users across India have been hit with blank pages when they try to access adult sites, many of them based outside the country, sparking anger on social media about moral policing.
According to the adult site Pornhub, India was its fourth largest source of traffic behind the United States, Britain and Canada.
Kaul said the order was issued after India’s top court voiced concern last month about the government’s failure to block child porn sites in India. “There is currently no system to filter specific websites. We are looking into evolving a system,” Kaul said, adding that until then all sites would be blocked. The Supreme Court declined to impose a ban on porn sites last month while hearing a legal petition against them, saying adults had the right to access such websites in private.
Prominent authors, commentators and politicians took to social media to voice their opposition while #Pornban had been trending on Twitter.

India orders hundreds of porn sites blocked

AFP, NEW DELHI: India has ordered hundreds of porn sites blocked citing objectionable content, a government official said yesterday, kicking off an angry row about freedom of speech in the worlds biggest democracy. The telecommunications ministry has directed Internet service providers (ISPs) to block 857 websites, in the governments first major crackdown on online pornography. We have written to the ISPs asking them to control free and open access to objectionable websites, N.N. Kaul, a spokesman at the telecommunications department, told AFP. Since the weekend, users across India have been hit with blank pages when they try to access adult sites, many of them based outside the country, sparking anger on social media about moral policing. According to the adult site Pornhub, India was its fourth largest source of traffic behind the United States, Britain and Canada. Kaul said the order was issued after Indias top court voiced concern last month about the governments failure to block child porn sites in India. There is currently no system to filter specific websites. We are looking into evolving a system, Kaul said, adding that until then all sites would be blocked. The Supreme Court declined to impose a ban on porn sites last month while hearing a legal petition against them, saying adults had the right to access such websites in private. Prominent authors, commentators and politicians took to social media to voice their opposition while #Pornban had been trending on Twitter.