The Pirate Bay and other large BitTorrent sites are now being blocked by Internet providers in India. Visitors who try to access the sites are redirected to a banner which informs them that the Department of Telecommunications ordered a blackout. Torrent sites are not the only target, as the blockade also censors the video sharing site Vimeo, one of the largest communities of indie filmmakers.
This also happened last year when several torrent sites and cyberlockers were blocked by ISPs around the launch of a Bollywood blockbuster. It’s happening again, several BitTorrent sites and, strangely, Vimeo, are now being blocked in the country. Visitors are met with a warning message saying that the site they are trying to access is being blocked by the “Department of Telecom”.
It’s hardly surprising for Indians as well, the government has been working hard to police the web, by forcing sites like Google or Facebook to censor stuff it doesn’t want online and by requiring access to all data on any site to be made available to police and other officials.
