The Indian government has issued a ban on 63 porn websites. The latest ban comes after nearly three years since the last order, which banned over 850 adult-rated content websites. While the reason behind the latest ban was not stated, it is safe to assume that the government issued the new order citing Article 19(2) of the Indian Constitution.
What is Article 19(2) of the Constitution? The article authorises the government to impose, by law, reasonable restrictions upon the freedom of speech and expression “in the interests of… public order.” The same Article 19 (2) of the Indian Constitution was used for banning hundreds of porn websites in India in 2019.
India Bans More Porn Websites
The Indian government has ordered a ban on 63 adult sites. ISPs are expected to implement the order soon and block access to these sites. The ANI tweet does not highlight the reason behind the ban. “The Government of India has blocked 63 porn websites/URLs in India, as per an order of the Ministry of Communications,” it reads.
The list of websites banned by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) includes indianporngirl.com, crazy18movies.com, goindian2.com, xnxx.tv, hifiporn.com, etc. The full list of the 63 banned porn sites can be seen below.
The official order also directs internet service providers (ISP) to block the access of the 63 porn websites banned in India.
The fresh ban comes three years after the government blocked over 800 adult content sites in India. The 2019 ban was imposed following a High Court order, which classified their content as immoral and indecent. The Department of Telecommunications issued a letter instructing leading ISPs to disable access to all the sites. The letter claimed that these websites posted content that went against “morality, decency as given in Article 19(2) of the Constitution”.
While the ban did come into effect immediately, users were found posting various methods to access blocked URLs, including virtual private network (VPN). We do not encourage our readers to do the same.
