Indian State is One Step Closer to ISP Porn Blocking

TELANGANA, India—The southern Indian state of Telangana is full of departments and ministries that commingle in confusing ways, ensuring slow progress on many matters, but if news reports out of the capital of Hyderabad are accurate, movement is being made in the government's attempt to make easy access to internet porn a thing of the past. Toward that end, "The Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has referred a plea that called for a ban on porn websites to the Cyber Law Division under the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY)," reported The Hindu BusinessLine. The move appears to be progress for anti-porn activists, though doubters may remain. It was in 2013, after all, that the Indian Supreme Court gave the government one month in which to devise a plan to block porn from the country's 1.3 billion citizens. Still, in this latest move, the wheels of Indian bureaucracy appear to be moving, at least in the south. According to the article, the law is very clear that the DeitY must act if the goal is to be met. "Acting on a requisition from Telangana," added BusinessLine, "the Department wanted the Group Coordinator of Cyber Law Division to take a call on the plea. Under the Information Technology Act of 2000, any decision to block a website or group of websites for public access must be taken by the Group Coordinator. After getting the DeitY nod, the Department of Telecommunications will direct the Internet Service Providers (ISPs)." A senior member of the government was also quoted as clarifying, “None but the officers designated by the rules notified under the IT Act can decide whether to block a site or not." The article adds that the Telangana government is claiming that a number of ISPs are already in violation of the law, specifically sections "67, 67A and 67B of the IT Act of 2000. The list of ISPs included Airtel, Aircel, Hathway, Beam Telecom, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Indicom, Vodafone and Dvois Broad Band." The government official added, "The State government has asked the IT Ministry to direct ISPs to employ tools to filter the objectionable material being transmitted through the web in the State." Assuming no other delays, 2015 could see the official censorship of internet porn come to a large part of India, an act that should see a commensurate surge in VPN memberships.