India not a totalitarian state, says government on porn ban

Reuters: Clearing its stand on the controversial porn ban issue, Indian government told Supreme Court on Monday (10 August) that it did not intend to intrude into the private spaces of its citizens and conduct moral policing.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the apex court that the government didn’t want to make India a totalitarian state.

However, the government sought a complete ban on online child pornography. Last week, India’s government blocked hundreds of adult websites to prevent pornography becoming a social nuisance. In India’s first big crackdown on Internet porn, service providers were directed to block 857 websites.

The public interest litigation (PIL) petitioner’s lawyer Vijay Panjwani welcomed the government’s stand on child pornography but demanded ban on all adult websites.

“My main prayer is to block all pornography. I also appreciate the government’s step that their attention had been drawn to child pornography, and ban will continue,” said Panjwani in New Delhi.

“It is not a matter of moral policing. I want enforcement of 67 and 67A and 67B sections of the Information Technology Act which prohibits transmission of sexually explicit act,” added Panjwani.

The court was hearing a case filed by lawyer Kamlesh Vaswani, who sought a total clampdown on pornography websites. India has the second largest number of internet users after China. Social media and smartphone use is growing rapidly.

The move has also caused outrage among the youth who believe the government was going the Chinese way with its censorship of the internet.

Demand for porn, however, seems strong. Pornhub, an adult entertainment website included in the ban, last year said India ranked fifth for daily visitors.