So It Took India All of 48 Hours to Rescind Ban on Porn

What a difference 48 hours without porn made in India. As I reported on Monday, the country was in the process of banning more than 800 pornographic and adult-oriented websites, but by 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the Indian government threw their hands up in the air and said, "Fuck it!" 

According to BBC (link below), the ban was intended to curb the sharing of child pornography, but once they "evaluated" all 857 sites and determined that they were free and clear, the game was back on for your average Manoj-Six-Pack. 

The department of telecom told internet service providers not to disable URLs that "do not have child pornographic content", the PTI agency reported.

The government denied charges of moral policing, saying it wanted to prevent children from accessing the sites.

In July, the Supreme Court criticised the government's inability to block sites featuring child pornography.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad met senior officials on Tuesday to review the ban and decided that internet service providers (ISPs) would be immediately asked not to block those sites which did not contain any child pornography.

Right, and how do you think that news went over with the ISPs? If you said, "Like a fart in church, Tucker," you win!

However, service providers have said the fresh directive is unreasonable.

"How can the government put the responsibility on us to see whether a website carries child pornography or not?," the head of the India Internet Service Providers Association told the Times of India.

Naturally the ban caused a lot of initial controversy and India proved that America's not alone in the world of using hyperbole and comparing any perceived threat to freedom as terrorism. 

News of the ban caused a furore on Indian social media, with several senior politicians and members of civil society expressing their opposition to the move.

The Indian government said that it was merely complying with the Supreme Court order and was committed to the freedom of communication on the Internet.

"I reject with contempt the charge that it is a Talibani government, as being said by some of the critics. Our government supports free media, respects communication on social media and has respected freedom of communication always," Mr Prasad told PTI.

So welcome back to all of our loyal and faithful readers in India. We missed you on both of those days you weren't allowed to see us.

Via BBC