The Indian government has blocked more than 30 major websites including Vimeo, Daily Motion, Internet Archive and Github in order to prevent the spread of what it calls ‘jihadi activities’.
The country’s Department of Telecoms blacklisted these test because they were carrying “anti-India” content from ISIS – the main concern was that users could post material without any authentication and they could hide their identities.
Sites also blocked included Weebly, Codepad, Justpaste, TheSnippetApp and Freehosting.com.
Officials said the other sites would have their blocks lifted if they complied with the “law of the land”.
The Indian Ministry for Communication and Information Technology said in a statement: “It was stated that Anti National group are using social media for mentoring Indian youths to join the Jihadi activities.”
It went on to say that the primary concern was that users posting material on the sites did not require any authentication, and that identities could be hidden.
Many internet users in the country are angry that other sites remain blocked, in particular Pastebin – a site used for “dumping” text online anonymously – and The Internet Archive, a US organisation that offers a database of old websites.
The Internet Archive said on Twitter that it had received “many complaints” from users who were unable to access the service.
India has a history of sporadically blocking websites, or issuing warnings about online content.
In August 2012, 245 sites were blocked by the government in an attempt, it said, to quell violence.