DoT bans 5 websites that don’t even show porn

NEW DELHI: In its over-enthusiasm to crack down on websites that host or provide links to pornographic content, the Indian government has blocked even some sites that have no porn content. Incidentally, these banned sites include some of the top international websites, ranked high by Alexa, an Amazon.com subsidiary that ranks websites on basis of traffic.
One of the blocked websites is CollegeHumor.com, a popular comedy website owned by media conglomerate IAC, is among the top 1,000 sites of the US, according to Alexa. It mostly hosts short comedy videos that poke fun at the youth and pop culture. Its YouTube channel is still active.
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Similarly, the video section of 9Gag, which relies on user-generated content to drive traffic, is also blocked. The website shows funny videos that are easily available on other sites like YouTube. 9Gag.com’s global and India ranks are 198 and 132, respectively, while 9Gag.tv’s global rank is just above 2,056.
Barstool Sports, a satirical blog on sports and lifestyle, has also been banned in the country courtesy the DoT order, as has been ShitBrix.com, which collects internet memes and factoids. Even social media content aggregator PopURLs has been blocked as per the order.
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NN Kaul, a DoT spokesperson, said on the matter that the telecom department did not look at the names of the websites while passing the order. The department had been directed to block the 857 websites by the Centre in a bid to curb child pornography, in line with a 2013 petition filed by Indore-based advocate Kamlesh Vasvani and had taken into consideration the list of websites he has provided.
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