Just a few days ago, we reported that the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has asked Internet Service Providers (ISPs) across the country to ban a list of porn websites after a directive from the High Court of Uttarakhand came through. The list includes more than 800 websites, and Jio was the among the first ISPs to put the ban in action.

People are scrambling to get their fair share of porn by accessing these blocked sites via a VPN (Virtual Private Network). But Pornhub has made it even easier, they've just created a mirror website on a new domain -- pornhub.net. Like I've previously said, the attempt to block porn is futile as the ISPs need to manually block a domain, and a general category of "porn" websites cannot be just blocked.

In response to Pornhub getting censored and blocked in India, our fans there can now fully access the site at https://t.co/xWrwXOE5sX — Pornhub ARIA (@Pornhub) October 26, 2018

The current list has 827 domain or URLs, and the site operators will simply change the address or create numerous mirror sites. "In response to Pornhub getting censored and blocked in India, our fans there can now fully access the site at Pornhub.net," the company said on Twitter.

"This is apparent by the fact that they only banned large sites like Pornhub's, and didn't block thousands of risky porn sites that may contain illegal content," VP Corey Price of Pornhub said in a statement.

© Reuters

The High Court decided to ban these websites after reports of a gangrape in Dehradun where the perpetrators were schoolchildren allegedly influenced by porn clips. Back in 2015, the DoT had directed ISPs to block more than 800 websites, including Pornhub that is legal in the US, for showing porn or face the risk of losing their licenses. But the last attempt never really materialized, obviously.

So far not all internet service providers have blocked the popular porn websites with the same zeal. On many networks in India, Pornhub remains accessible. But it seems that Jio has been most thorough in applying the ban.

© Google Trends

It isn't a huge task for the authorities to add up the new domain as well in the ban list, but users still continue accessing these websites via a VPN. For those who aren't aware, a VPN encrypts the connection from your device to the server and acts as a middle person in the process. Hence, even if you are trying to access a website that is blocked in India, the VPN requests the data from another region like Singapore or the US and then transfers the content to you.

According to Google Trends, searches for a VPN solution have gone up drastically in the last few days. The ban has been brutally mocked on social networking sites and it's not surprising. Pornhub says the people of India are among “largest connoisseurs of adult content,” which is also quite apparent from the company's 2017 insights, where India is listed as the third country in terms of traffic.

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Photo: © Reuters (Main Image)