Only three days in, 2015 saw censorship rearing its ugly head in the country; much commotion has been taking place in the world wide web with 32 websites including Pastebin, Github and Dailymotion brandishing Error 404’s at visitors with the dawn of the year. The sweeping block was a decision made by the government for alleged ‘jihadi propaganda’, with it affecting approximately 300 million people in the country, spanning ISP's and mobile operators. The
released by The Press Information Bureau, Government of India reads,
“Anti National group are using social media for mentoring Indian youths to join the Jihadi activities. These websites work on page hosting concept. Many of these wbsites (sic) does not require any authentication for pasting any material on them. Other upload articles, Videos or photos or to download the contents which helps to hide the identities. These websites were being used frequently for pasting, communicating such content by just changing page name even blocking the earlier one.”
India’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology issued a statement yesterday indicating that the order blocking Vimeo had been lifted. We're grateful for this decision and we look forward to having access to Vimeo restored in India soon."
"The websites that have been blocked were based on an advisory by Anti-Terrorism Squad, and were carrying Anti India content from ISIS,"
The sites that have removed objectionable content and/or cooperated with the on-going investigations, are being unblocked."
Compiled By: Homegrown Staff
