The residents of Jammu and Kashmir are now unable to access social networking site Facebook, as well as video streaming site YouTube. Orders have been issued by the J&K government, that internet service providers should restrict user access to these websites.
The recent move by the government has been initiated after protests against anti-Islam videos, that were uploaded on YouTube. Earlier there were reports that certain URLs which had offensive content were being blocked; but recent reports mention, that now entire websites have been blocked.
Last month the internet service providers were directed by the government of Jammu and Kashmir to ensure that controversial YouTube videos were not accessible from the site within the state. The state Home Department had issued orders which invoked the powers conferred under the section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885.
The order said, “In the interest of public safety and for maintaining public order, the government directed all licensed Telecom Service Providers and Internet Service Providers to make arrangements to ensure that their subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir should not be able to download or upload the contents”. The order even mentioned that if needed, entire domains could be blocked by the service providers. The government of India has asked the telecom operators in the state of Jammu and Kashmir to provide mechanisms for fool proof monitoring of real time internet traffic.
