14 DAY TRIAL // The Indian government has ordered local ISPs to ban a list of 857 websites, most being porn sites, but reports are also indicating that popular services like CollegeHumor and 9Gag are included, along with some torrent sites.
As Hindustan Times reports, the ban is not yet fully implemented, but most of the population will be greeted by a blank page when accessing one of the sites found on the list, or by a generic message that says "blocked as per the directions received from Department of Telecommunications, Government of India."
While the full list has not been revealed by government officials, the ban seems to cover more than just adult websites, including torrent sites from where this kind of imagery can be downloaded, or websites with adult content like 9Gag and CollegeHumor.
Additionally, some Reddit users are also saying that Reddit and Imgur are included on the list as well, but the ban does not affect their HTTPS versions.
Using OCR software, a Reddit user also claims to have obtained the full list of blocked sites.
This is not the first time India accidentally bans respectable sites
The ban, put into place last Friday, came after India's Supreme Court comments on the government's failure in blocking child pornography.
When facing the media, government officials said that there was no crackdown on adult websites, describing the whole situation as temporary until proper legislation is put into place.
Reaction from the population was quick and wasn't very friendly towards their own elected officials. This is to no surprise, since PornHub statistics show that 2 out of 5 users are accessing the site from an Indian IP address.
At the end of 2014, Indian authorities put in place a similar ban on sites containing terrorist content, and as with this most recent blocklist, respectable and well-known services got their names on the list. That time it was Vimeo, Weebly, Dailymotion, and GitHub.
Banning porn is a kind of savage and barbaric act and it will not be tolrated at any cost. ;-) ;-) #पोर्न_बैन
— Desi Dude (@hiteshthetiger) August 2, 2015
govt should ban Indian porn rather than porn in India.
— mthn smrt trll (@Being_Humor) August 3, 2015
Bikini ban, Valentines day ban, Beef ban, if all this was not enough, even Porn has been blocked in India now, keep voting BJP SARKAAR!
— Hitman Cricket (@HitmanCricket) August 1, 2015
UPDATE: After only a day, the ban was lifted and very few of the initial 857 websites are still on the official pr0n blocklist.