India orders ISPs to block ‘porn’ websites under hazy rules
27 Jun 2013
The union government has decided to order a ban on a number of websites which it believes allow users to share pornographic content.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in an order to internet service providers dated 13 June, has told the ISPs to block 39 websites.
Most of them may be forums for sharing pornographic images and URLs; but some of these websites are also image and file hosts, mostly used to store and share files that are not pornographic, The Times of India said in a report.
While watching or distributing child pornography is illegal in India, watching adult pornography is not; so it is unclear on what grounds the DoT is banning these sites.
The blocked websites are hosted outside India and claim to operate under the 18 USC 2257 rule in force in the US. The rule specifies that producers of pornographic material are required to retain records showing performers were over 18 years of age at the time of video or image shoot; but adult porn is allowed.
The DoT order to ISPs says, "It has been decided to immediately block the access to the following URLs ... you are accordingly directed to immediately block the access to above URLs."
India's rules on cyber content are opaque and perhaps deliberately hazy, allowing authorities to actually arrest people accused of putting up on the website anything critical of the government or anything that displeases the powers that be, official or unofficial.
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