India is to partially lift a ban on online pornography after criticism over authorities’ decision to block more than 800 pornographic websites.



In the first large-scale crackdown on the internet in India, the world’s largest democracy, websites were blocked over the weekend as telecommunications companies began to implement government instructions.

The Department of Communications said the aim was to prevent pornography becoming a social nuisance, but the move immediately prompted a nationwide debate about censorship and freedom.

Indian news outlets reported on Wednesday that the ban would be partially withdrawn. Ravi Shankar Prasad, the information and technology minister, told India Today TV: “A new notification will be issued shortly. The ban will be partially withdrawn. Sites that do not promote child porn will be unbanned.”

The Indian authorities’ move came after the country’s supreme court ruled last month that banning pornographic websites is the job of the elected government. The court heard a petition from a lawyer, acting in a personal capacity, who argued that online pornography fuelled sex crimes.

A 17-page government order, issued on 31 July and leaked to freedom of speech activists, listed offending sites and directed service providers to block access on the grounds of morality and decency. The 857-strong list included a number of comic sites.

The ban drew criticism from a range of India’s public figures, and the hashtag #Pornban began trending on Twitter. Novelist Chetan Bhagat wrote: “Porn ban is anti-freedom, impractical, not enforceable. Politically not very smart too. Avoidable. Let’s not manage people’s private lives.”

Experts said the ban, which the government apparently intended to remain secret, may have overstepped current laws in India.

Pranesh Prakash, of the Centre for Internet and Society, an Indian thinktank, said provisions exist under obscenity laws for blocking individual sites, but not for imposing sweeping restrictions.

“It is illegitimate because it is not as though the government has found these websites unlawful … This is a blanket ban and the government has not thought through the consequences,” Prakash said.

India has the second-largest number of internet users in the world after China. The country is expected to have more than 500 million internet users by 2017, compared with approximately 350 million now.