India: Porn sites back on after public backlash

Hundreds of porn sites that were temporarily banned in India, are back on, after criticisms of heavy censorship.

In a bid to control child pornography, the country's telecommunication authorities had called on some 857 websites to be blocked on 30 July.

Internet service providers (ISPs), however, were urged to allow access to the banned sites on 4 August, with the exception of child porn sites.

"ISPs are free to allow access to the previously banned websites, which do not have child pornographic content," said N. N. Kaul, a spokesman for the telecommunication department, reported AFP News.

Meanwhile, several service providers have decided against the government mandate on lifting the ban due to lack of clarity.

"ISPs have no way or mechanism to filter out child pornography from URLs, and the further unlimited sub-links," said the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), reported The Times of India.

Speaking to AFP News, Rajesh Chharia, the head of the Internet Service Providers Association of India, said: "This is very vague order. There is no clarity and until we don't get clear answers, we will keep the websites blocked.

"We urge you to withdraw the said vague directive as it is not only confusing but also putting responsibility on ISPs."

Porn is legal in India unlike child porn, which is considered illegal.

While some social media users rejoiced, others couldn't make sense of the entire process.