Over the last 12 years, the Government of India has blocked over 25,000 URLs according to an RTI query filed by the Software Freedom Legal Central (SFLC.in), a legal policy firm.
The URLs were blocked under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. They include social media pages, web pages as well as entire websites. According to Section 69A, a URL can be blocked by any government agency or any intermediary to prevent the public from accessing it “in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence relating to above”.
Also Read: Google finds Russian-hacking group is spoofing pro-Ukraine app
Speaking to the Indian Express, the Legal director at SFLC, Prasanth Sugathan said that the government has repeatedly used Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to “censor content” especially considering there are “limited grounds for blocking of access to any information”.
Also Read: Twitter files lawsuit against India’s content removal order
As of March 2022, the government has blocked access to 1482 URLs. It is worth pointing out that under Rule 16 of Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information Public ) Rules, 2009, any complaints or requests for blocking are required to be made confidential. To wit, the legislation makes it so that the government can block any URL it decides to, without the veracity of request being validated, all in the name of national security.
Also Read: Indian parents support monitoring child’s online activity, report reveals
Here is a list of the total number of websites blocked, starting from 2010:
2010: 9
2011: 21
2012 362
2013: 62
2014: 471
2015: 500
2016: 633
2017: 1385
2018: 2799
2019: 3635
2020: 9849
2021: 6096
2022: 1482
Also Read: What Eutelsat and OneWeb merger means for India
It is worth pointing out that there has been a marked increase in the number of URLs that have been blocked in the last eight years, starting from 2014, the year that Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the election.
