India Remove Pornography Bans After Mass Outrage
Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has ordered that access to porn sites that do not contain illegal content should be restored, just days after the government banned access to a wide range of sites.
On Monday, the Indian government had told internet service providers to block access to some 857 porn sites, including many of the most popular websites in the world. However, the move was met with swift opposition from members of the public as well as other politicians and anti-censorship groups who demanded that the sites showing legal content should be unblocked.
The controversial decision to block the URLs came after the Supreme Court in India ruled that the government should be doing more to block sites that contain child pornography. Ministers also explained that they were simply trying to stop children from being able to visit the sites.
ISPs, though, are unhappy with the new order as it effectively tasks them with policing whether or not porn sites contain any illegal content, something that they feel is unreasonable.
