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The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued a fresh notification on the issue of blocking websites that contain pornographic matter especially related to child pornography. The notification which was issued late in the evening on Tuesday said that internet service providers (ISPs) are free to not to disable the 857 websites if these websites do not contain child pornographic contents.
“In continuation with our letter sated 30th July, 2015, the Department of Telecommunications is hereby requested to communicate to all the intermediaries (ISPs) that they are hereby directed that they are free not to disable any of the 857 URLs as given in the earlier list which do not have child pornographic content,” the notification said.
This fresh order has once again put the ISPs in a tight spot as going by the DoT order they have to use their own mechanism in finding out which of these websites do not contain child pornographic materials.
“We are not able to understand the order and need some more clarity from the licensor (read DoT). The licensor has to come out very clearly since it is not possible for the ISPs to monitor these websites all the time,” said Rajesh Chharia, the president of industry body, Internet Services Providers Association of India (ISPAI).
After the last notification by the DoT, most of the ISPs have already blocked the websites as notified by the department, which host pornographic matter. This however had raged a serious debate in the social media with many questioning the intent of the government at a time when clamour for freedom of internet is getting louder.
The industry body had earlier said that while child pornography is illegal, the manner at which the government is trying to block such websites may not fulfill the purpose as the blocked ones can relaunch using new domain names and URLs.
