In 2018, the Indian government decided to ban 827 porn websites after a Supreme Court petition by a lawyer saying that porn websites promote sexual crimes. The porn ban continued till 2019, and one of the biggest adult entertainment website, Pornhub, reported that India had lost its third-place ranking in terms of traffic on the website. In their annual report, India fell twelve places and reached 15th position, and Pornhub blamed the government for this loss in traffic.
In the traffic ratings, Japan moved upwards, and the United Kingdom moved down to third, whereas India reached 15th positions from its 3rd position in 2018. The US is the largest traffic provider for Pornhub, followed by Japan, the UK, Canada, France, and Germany, and the top 20 countries in the list generate 79% of total traffic.
Pornhub India ban and the aftermath
In 2017, the government’s Department of Telecom (DoT) asked the internet service providers to ban 827 websites for hosting child pornography on them. Most sites that were listed had to be taken down because they had strict policies against child pornography.
Four class 12th students gang-raped a class 10th student in Dehradun, and during the investigation, it was found that they had watched porn before committing the crime. The Uttarakhand High Court ordered companies and sent a notice to them to ban the websites and prevent such cases in the future. The largest telecom and internet service providers in India – Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel took down most of the porn websites from their network, but 91% of the Indians still visit Pornhub from their mobile phones. Many sites, including Pornhub, developed various proxy websites so that the content can reach to one of their biggest markets in the world.
