Porn ban in India: The Indian government has once again ordered to ban pornographic websites in the country. This time, the government has directed Internet service providers to block as many as 827 websites that host pornographic content. This came in the wake of Uttarakhand High Court's order, reported PTI. While the state High Court has asked to block 857 websites, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) found 30 portals without any pornographic content.



Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to block 827 websites named in the list issued as part of the order. The Department of Telecom said in an order issued to Internet service providers (ISPs), "... all the internet service licensees are instructed to take immediate necessary action for blocking of 827 websites as per the direction from Meity and for the compliance of the Hon'ble High Court order."



The high court order was issued on September 27, 2018, and it was received by Meity on October 8. Meity informed the DoT that the Uttarakhand High Court has ordered for blocking 857 websites contained in an old notice of DoT dated July 31, 2015. The DoT had changed its order on August 4, 2015, to ISP saying that the ISPs are free not to disable any of the 857 web links which do not have child pornographic content.



Earlier in the year 2015, the DoT had asked ISPs to block a total of 857 websites. Some sites were even blocked for hosting jokes, memes and other humorous content without any pornography. The directive had sparked a raging debate on social media and other platforms with the government being accused of indulging into Internet censorship.