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Child porn sites blocked, action on others soon: Centre tells SC
The Centre told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it has ordered blocking of child pornography sites, but said similar action against adult pornography would be taken after adequate verification to avoid “public criticism” similar to the one it faced in 2015 when 857 sites were disabled.
The Centre told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it has ordered blocking of child pornography sites, but said similar action against adult pornography would be taken after adequate verification to avoid “public criticism” similar to the one it faced in 2015 when 857 sites were disabled.
“Government remains committed to act against pornography as it violates the law. But, government has to make a fine balance between rights of an individual, obligation to the society and freedom of speech and right to life and liberty along with the initiatives it has taken to promote the Digital India program,” read the ministry of electronics and information technology affidavit. The top court is hearing a PIL filed by Indore-based Kamlesh Vaswani, who wants a complete ban on online pornography.
With regard to child pornography, the government said the department of telecommunications has directed 15 Internet Service Providers (ISP) to block the “Worst Of” sites. The list was provided to the department by Interpol. Action will be taken as per law if the ISPs fail to implement the direction.
Websites, the government said, are dynamic and replicate very fast. Blocking them at a domain level would amount to curtailing access, which could derail the Digital India and digital empowerment initiative.
