PornBan: Indian ISPs Block Porn Websites; Ram Gopal Varma Criticises Move, Says Consenting Adults Being 'Deprived of Harmless Fun'

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma (RGV), who is upset with the blocking of porn websites, has criticised the move, saying it is a case of "depriving consenting adults of harmless fun."

On Saturday, some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as MTNL, BSNL, Airtel and ACT reportedly starting blocking access to several popular adult websites in India. When a user tries to access porn content, these websites will show either a blank page or the message, "The site has been blocked as per the instructions of Competent Authority."

However, the Department of Telecom is yet to confirm about issuing any such instruction., though the manner in which the sites are being blocked is prompting people to suspect that the government could be behind it.   

It may be recalled that last month, the Supreme Court had refused to pass an interim order to block such websites in India, saying it "cannot stop an adult from exercising his fundamental right to personal liberty to watch porn within the privacy of his room."

In his oral observation while hearing a PIL filed by an advocate seeking a ban on porn websites, Chief Justice H.L. Dattu said, "Somebody may come to the court and say look I am above 18 and how can you stop me from watching it within the four walls of my room. It is a violation of Article 21 [right to personal liberty]."

The news of adult sites being blocked first went viral on Reddit on Saturday. Later in the evening, the hashtag #Pornban started trending on Twitter.

Ram Gopal Varma took to his Twitter handle late night and in a series of tweets, criticised the government for banning porn in the country. Here are his tweets: 

Considering the sheer popularity of Porn whichever government owns up to banning it is sure to be wiped out of existence in next election

Government should work on finding ways to steer the content not to go in wrong directions rather than to block it

To deprive consenting adults of the harmless fun they ar having of watching porn is equivalent of what Taliban nd Isis is doing to freedom

To ban porn saying it will be seen by who shouldn't see it is like saying to stop traffic because there will be accidents

I frankly find this worry of children watching porn is foolish because if they are not yet sexually awakened it would mean nothing to them

Once children reach an age of sexual awakening with or without porn they will sexually awaken as they have since human species were born

All in all any deprivation of personal liberty of an individual by a government amounts to a regression of social progress of that country

History proved it multiple times that if anytime anything is banned it will just gather strength in the underground

The best way to tackle a presumed menace is to bring it out in open rather than pushing it under the rug or pretending it doesn't exist

It's a proven fact by international surveys that instead of fuelling sexual crimes porn actually provides safer outlet for sexual repression

cannot stop an adult from exercising his fundamental right to personal liberty to watch porn within the privacy of his room.