VideoLAN, the non-profit organisation behind VLC Media Player, has confirm the blocking of the multimedia player’s website via many tweets on its official Twitter handle. The Paris-based group confirm that its official site has been block in India since 13th February 2022.
The official reason behind the block is yet to be reveale.
An RTI request, file by digital liberties organisation Internet Freedom Foundation shows that the government is unaware of the reason for blocking the VLC website in India.
The multimedia player is available for download via the Google Play store and Apple’s App Store.
VideoLan president and lead developer Jean-Baptiste Kempf confirm that the website for the open-source VLC media player has block in India since 13th February 2022.
Also Jean-Baptiste Kempf said that some ISPs (Internet service providers) have block the site.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf Said :
Jean-Baptiste Kempf says that the site saw a drop of 80% in traffic from the South Asian market on 13th February 2022.
India represents 10% of all VLC users worldwide, Jean-Baptiste Kempf said adding that the website traffic has dropped 20% as a result of the India ban.
Following the blocking of the official website, VideoLAN reach out to Indian users for help via Twitter.
As per an RTI request file by the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), the reason for the block remains unknown.
According to the digital liberties organisation, an RTI was file in June with the Department of Telecom (DoT) about the website being banned.
The DoT transfer the request to the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology (MeitY).
IFF reveal that MeitY’s response on 14th July 2022 was that “No information is available [with MeitY]”.
However, in their single-line response, @GoI_MeitY has simply stated that they do not have any such information. We have filed the first appeal on this response, arguing that it is illegal and demonstrates non-application of mind. (3/4)https://t.co/nz3KCtABBc
— Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) August 14, 2022
According to IFF Group :
The IFF said they have got a single-line response that MeitY has no such information.
The VideoLAN website is said to be accessible via proxy websites.
The existing users can still access VLC Media Player on Google Play and App Store.
But new users are not allow to download the app via the official website, which could pose a security risk for users, who attempt to download the popular video player via third-party sources.