It seems first time ever, Indian government would officially impose Internet censorship via blocking the newly passed ICANN TLD of .XXX domains.
Its been almost a year since when for the first time internet industry proposed to grant .XXX TLD registration for online porn industry. However, India was among those country which highly opposed towards the proposal and now when ICANN passed the proposal to start the public registration, Indian IT ministry is asked all the national Internet Service Providers to physically restrict user access and DNS propagation towards the .XXX domains.
Decision has mixed reaction inside India since the Indian Constitution doesn’t allow porn business. However the decision holds significant importance since for the first time, Indian ISPs are asked to censor Internet !!
India along with many other countries from the Middle East and Indonesia opposed the grant of the domain in the first place, and we would proceed to block the whole domain, as it goes against the IT Act and Indian laws
As an Internet user, personally I thought this move of allowing .XXX domain registration to be a good move since it would make it easy for parental control software to work if Industry can officially identify and label content viewable and non viewable, however, its frustrating to watch the decisions of LAW makers and worried to see the silent start of censorship in Indian ISP.
