ThePirateBay.org domain has been blocked by some ISPs in India and users are not happy about it.

Earlier we reported how India has waged a war on Torrents and file sharing websites. Now according to Hackread’s readers in India, the World’s largest BitTorrent tracker ThePirateBay is being blocked by some Internet service providers (ISPs) throughout the country.

The war against torrents and file sharing services came as a surprise when ISPs started blocking their domains with a brief, yet confusing, warning message alerting visitors to avoid visiting, viewing, downloading or sharing “illegal content” from such sites or they may face 3 years jail time and also a fine of 3,00,000 Indian Rupees (4,464 US Dollar). But on ThePirateBay.org domain the message was rather simple:

This URL has been blocked under instructions of the Competent Government Authority or In compliance to orders of Hon’ble Court.

One of the readers confirmed that TPB has been blocked in Hyderabad city since the last couple of days on ACT Fibernet Connection, ACT is currently the 4th largest ISP In the wired broadband category and the largest non-telco ISP in India. Another reader using Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Internet also confirmed that the site has been blocked with a similar message but they can access the site using a Virtual private network (VPN).

When it comes to AirTel Internet, users can still access TPB meanwhile status on Tata and Reliance Internet service remains unclear.

As per Alexa ranking, The Pirate Bay is 135th among most visited sites in India.

Several users expressed their anger over the blockage of TPB and other torrent platforms referring it as Internet Censorship. One user going by the online handle of Namo commented on the issue and described it as ”Shameful and against the democratic practices:

“India is now behaving like China in terms of censorship. And top of that indulge in making filthy rules to fill their own pockets with the money force out of common man’s hard earned wages. It is indeed shameful to experience such a rule in a country governed by the ideals of democracy.”

The war on Torrents and file sharing sites is not new in India. In 2012, the government blocked ThePirateBay and Torrentz.eu without stating any reason but the recent decision came a month after the shutdown of Kickass Torrents which led to the arrest of its owner Artem Vaulting.

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If you are an India and would like to spread the word do let us know if you can still access torrents site or not, email us at admin@hackread.com.