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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    India bans 857 Porn sites

    Over the weekend, Indian internet users realised at some point that the government had gone ahead and banned 857 websites that had been deemed pornographic. But it was quickly evident that while the government may have acted swiftly in order to display compliance with a Supreme Court directive, it wasn't the smartest way to have gone about it.

    So just what did the government get wrong?

    1. Even non-porn sites were banned

    The Department of Telecom was directed to block the 857 websites by the Centre in a bid to curb child pornography, in line with a 2013 petition filed by Indore-based advocate Kamlesh Vasvani and had taken into consideration the list of websites he has provided.

    However, the list of websites for some reason also included non-porn websites like CollegeHumour.com, 9gag.com, Barstool Sports (Barstool Sports), ShitBrix.com, PopURLs.com. Don't ask why but they were just there, and the only presumption for now is that petitioner didn't like what he saw on them. And since it is too much of a bother to check what they were banning, the government seems to have just forwarded the entire list to Internet Service Providers. The government might argue that at the end of the day -- it is only the bigger picture that matters. That we might see them as incompetent is unfortunately also part of that bigger picture.

    2. It's not only child porn sites that have been banned

    The DoT is claiming that the order passed was only to block child porn websites, but as we have seen lots of other sites were blocked as well. There are now enough articles doing the rounds about how VPN will allow you to access these sites. If VPN's are too much of a hassle, you can go to proxies, torrents or even IRC. A ban that is so weak amounts to nothing. So all the government has really tried to do is comply with the Supreme Court observations and it only shows they aren't serious about this.

    The UPA government had requested the court to adopt a restrained approach. Through then additional solicitor general K V Vishwananthan, it had told the court that en mass blocking of websites for porn content could prove counter-productive.
    He had explained to court that good, bad and ugly websites could all get blocked if the petitioner's approach was to be implemented. "Everything would be blocked and even good literature would be blocked and it would cause greater harm," he had said.

    The NDA government though seems to have been feeling particularly compliant.
    porn

    3. Now mulling an ombudsman to monitor porn

    According to one report, the government is now planning an ombudsman to monitor pornography. Now imagine one bureaucrat sitting somewhere in a deep, dark corner, and his job will be to certify porn - X, XX, XXX, ban. Instead of this, in most countries there are laws to ensure you can’t view and trade images of children pressed into pornography.

    The creation of an ombudsman will leave bans to a concerned authority's discretion. How will the concerned ombudsman decide constitutes 'extreme pornography' and will there will be accepted norms in place on how to decide what to ban? This could lead to “know it when I see it” type prosecutions -- the kind that saw the Section 66A of the Information Technology Act being misused by politicians and is unlikely to provide a solution to the real issue at hand.

    4. Banning only 857 websites

    In 2010, out of the million most popular websites in the world, 42,337 were sex-related sites. That’s about 4 percent of the total websites in the world. We are now in 2015 -- the number can be presumed to have grown exponentially. Just to give you some perspective of how much more porn is being consumed, since the start of 2015, there have been over 1,320, 679, 855 searches for online porn.

    An analysis of more than one million hits to Google’s mobile search sites reveals that more than 1 in 5 searches are for pornography on mobile devices. By 2015, mobile adult content and services are expected to reach $2.8 billion, mobile adult subscriptions will reach nearly $1 billion, and mobile adult video on tablets will triple worldwide.

    But India thinks it can counter this by banning 857 websites. Who are they trying to kid?

    5. Not being a 'Talibani government' but choosing to act without consultation

    Despite the intense criticism over the ban, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad came out strongly in its defence.

    "I reject with contempt the charge that it is a Talibani government, as being said by some of the critics. Our government supports free media, respect communication on social media and has respected freedom of communication always. My government is committed towards freedom on the social media and communication on the Internet," he said.

    But the point is that the government could have chosen to have a debate before the ban. They could have set a committee in place (like they do with everything else) to figure out the best way to do that, but that seems like it would be asking for too much. From the beef ban, to the alleged saffronisation of our textbooks to the manner is which critical viewpoints are being squashed (the IIT Madras ban on a Ambedkar Periyar group come to mind) -- all of it only adds to the perception of a silent Talibanisation taking place. For the government, to completely ignore this is just plain ridiculous.

    Banning just 857 websites: Five things that are truly ridiculous about India's porn ban - Firstpost

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat CaptainNemo's Avatar
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    Not just that: beef; books; NGOS; noodles; and documentaries...
    From Maggi to porn, here is India?s latest banned list | The Indian Express

  3. #3
    Gohills flip-flops wearer
    withnallstoke's Avatar
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    Anybody have a list of the porn sites?

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
    3. Now mulling an ombudsman to monitor porn
    I reckon they'd have hundreds queuing up for that job.

  5. #5
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by withnallstoke View Post
    Anybody have a list of the porn sites?
    You'll find the full list here

    Here Is the Complete List of 857 Porn Websites Blocked in India - The New Indian Express

  6. #6
    Gohills flip-flops wearer
    withnallstoke's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by boloa
    You'll find the full list here
    Cheers.

  7. #7
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    Hans Mann's Avatar
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    It's a good thing Indians aren't good at IT, otherwise they'd figure out using proxy servers to get on those sites.

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat
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    Yet, the atrocities and deeper barbaric social issues that continue everyday throughout the society are overlooked nor addressed by the good authorities...

    Priorities.

  9. #9
    I'm in Jail

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    Bloody good thing I reckon, I'm yet to see a decent Indian Porno,

  10. #10
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    From the karma sutra to you can't watch this ...... hmm .

  11. #11
    R.I.P. Luigi's Avatar
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    So still less than Thailand has banned then.

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat

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    Is TeakDoor banned there?...

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat CaptainNemo's Avatar
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    India lifts porn ban after widespread outrage

    India will restore free access to 857 pornographic websites, following widespread outrage over the move.
    The department of telecom told internet service providers not to disable URLs that "do not have child pornographic content", the PTI agency reported.
    The government denied charges of moral policing, saying it wanted to prevent children from accessing the sites.
    In July, the Supreme Court criticised the government's inability to block sites featuring child pornography.
    Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad met senior officials on Tuesday to review the ban and decided that internet service providers (ISPs) would be immediately asked not to block those sites which did not contain any child pornography.
    However, service providers have said the fresh directive is unreasonable.
    "How can the government put the responsibility on us to see whether a website carries child pornography or not?," the head of the India Internet Service Providers Association told the Times of India.
    News of the ban caused a furore on Indian social media, with several senior politicians and members of civil society expressing their opposition to the move.
    The Indian government said that it was merely complying with the Supreme Court order and was committed to the freedom of communication on the Internet.
    "I reject with contempt the charge that it is a Talibani government, as being said by some of the critics. Our government supports free media, respects communication on social media and has respected freedom of communication always," Mr Prasad told PTI.
    Source: India lifts porn ban after widespread outrage - BBC News

    In other news, the National Kama Sutra Association has announced a new position called The Plumber: you stay in all day and nobody comes.

  14. #14
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    Have they learnt to shave yet?

  15. #15
    Thailand Expat VocalNeal's Avatar
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    porn-is-worse-than-hitler-claims-activist-indian-lawyer


    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ending_strip_2

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