ISPs in India Refuse to Block Child Porn Sites Without a Court Order

The Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) told the Supreme Court on Monday that they simply provide internet access to customers and they could not ban websites displaying the objectionable content without orders from the court or the Department of Telecom (DoT).

The reaction from ISPs is in response to a petition filed by Indore-based advocate Kamlesh Vaswani to ban child porn pornographic content which is freely available on the internet in India. Advocate Vaswani pleaded to the Supreme Court that although watching obscene videos was not an offense, pornographic sites should be banned as they were one of the major causes behind crimes against women, girls and children.

The group told The Times of India that "ISPs neither create content of any sort, nor do they own, promote, modify or edit it. They are mere authorized service providers who provide customers’ access to Internet. ISPs are mere conduits and they cannot be made liable for the contents they do not own. It would be akin to making liable telecom companies for conversations people have on their network."

In India, the ISPs are legally responsible for compliance with all orders to block pornographic or other websites as suggested by the DoT, but the ISPAI felt the job of identifying which sites to block should not be theirs.

Last November, it was reported that technology firms Google and Microsoft re-programmed their search engines so that about 100,000 possible terms used in a search for child pornography would not provide any results. At that time, IET Chair (IT Policy Panel) Martyn Thomas said "Universal blocking of websites, search terms and content is a blunt and ineffective tool and can easily be circumvented.”

The continued exploitation of children around the world is a serious crime, and with it comes stiff penalties for anyone caught with child pornography images and/or sharing them. The penalties apply as well as for any websites displaying such content. Search providers, government officials and internet service providers continue to battle for more effective ways to both prevent and stop this horrific crime. However, ISPs continue to fight back in a similar way as with the sharing of copyrighted material. Most ISPs conclude that they are not the internet police; they are not responsible for any content shared on their networks, and they only provide a service to customers. They will, however, respond to take-down notices. Despite the legality of any offensive content, is it right to make the internet providers choose which content to block, and hold them responsible, or should it really be up to the courts to decide?