Earlier this year, the Indian Government had blocked the website of VLC Media Player suggesting that the application had been communicating with the server of a previously banned app and transferring user information to a ‘hostile country’. Now it looks like the ban on VLC Media Player’s website has been removed.
Many users in India were unable to access the website at all or even download the program on their computers. The VLC apps continued to work fine.
The notice for the ban reportedly came from the Home Ministry under Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act. But it was banned without any prior notice, which reportedly goes against the 2009 Blocking Rules in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India. The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) had filed an RTI in June with the Department of Telecom asking the reason why the website had been blocked.
Soon after, DoT transferred the request to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
VICTORY 🎉@GoI_MeitY has decided to remove its ban on the website of VLC media player. IFF provided legal support to @videolan throughout this process. (1/3)#WhatTheBlock pic.twitter.com/pW7APDAbIX
— Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) November 14, 2022
The VLC Media Player’s official Twitter handle also tweeted that the ban has been removed. The website is now accessible to most users in India. We have reached out to Internet Freedom Foundation for more details.
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