Report: India Bans 39 Porn File Sharing Websites

NEW DELHI—Details are sketchy, but the Times of India has reported that on June 14, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) ordered “a blanket ban on 39 websites that allow users to share pornographic content.” No legal reason was reportedly given for the order to block the sites, which are not named in the article and have not yet been located on the DoT website, but the Times did add, “Most of them are web forums where internet users share images and URLs to download pornographic files. But some of these websites are also image hosts and file hosts, mostly used to store and share files that are non-pornographic.” Interestingly, the article also states that the blocked websites “are hosted outside India and claim to operate under the 18 USC 2257 rule enforced by 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.” That is odd because what we usually think of as “web forums where internet users share images and URLs to download pornographic files” usually do not keep 2257 records. Pleading for “anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.” a senior government official tried to explain the situation to the paper, saying “the department was just following the orders issued by Cyber Security Coordination Committee and hence could not talk about the specific reasons behind the block.” This is not the first time India has taken a crack a filesharing websites, if indeed that’s what these turn out to be. The DoT issued a similar order in 2011. Stay tuned…