Government bans more than 800 pornographic sites

November 1, 2018

India’s porn ban, extends to 827 websites. Particularly aggrieved are those who have paid annual subscriptions.

Pornhub, whose 3rd largest customer base comes from India (the 1st two are US & &UK), has created a mirror site Pornhub.net to get around the ban.

Other sites like Behance.net have advised their clients to download the mobile app. The customer care divisions of Airtel, Reliance Jio & Vodafone have been flooded with calls.

Numerous tweets hit Twitter under the hashtag #pornban, with users saying this goes against net neutrality laws in India, which prohibit discrimination against any content provider.

Users feel the govt. should've taken strong action against child porn, rape porn & BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism & masochism types of sexual practice), & not against the more well-known porn websites like Pornhub & Xvideos.com, who ensure their content is above board.

That was a sentiment voiced also by Pornhub vice president Corey Price: “This is apparent by the fact that they only banned large sites like Pornhub, & didn’t block thousands of risky porn sites that may contain illegal content. There're no laws against pornography in India & watching adult content privately. It is evident that the Indian govt doesn't have a solution to a very serious & systemic problem in the country, & is using adult sites like ours as a scapegoat.”

Viewing of adult content in India soared 75% between March 2016 & March 2017, following data rates crashing with the entry of Reliance Jio, said video viewership tracker Vidooly’s. A lot of that increase in fact came from smaller towns.

There are supporters of the ban too, who point to studies showing clear links between porn & violence against women.

“There have been many studies showing that porn addiction can lead to sexual violence against women. In the largest interests of the public, the government might have undertaken this step. Net neutrality laws have been adopted. But there's no such thing as absolute neutrality and absolute non-interference. Reasonable restrictions can be placed if the government has concerns,” said A Sirajudeen, Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court of India.