Indian providers have been blocking VLC Media Player’s site since February for unknown reasons. The Indian government does not want to respond to the question of why the providers are blocking the Videolan.org site.
The providers use various techniques for the blockage, Techcrunch writes. This makes it seem that it is not a mistake, but a conscious blockage. Videolan tells the site that it has not received any notification from the Indian government about the blockade.
The Indian Internet Freedom Foundation has submitted a request to the responsible ministry and has received a reply that there is no information about the blockade. The organization calls that illegal and has appealed the reaction.
Techcrunch cites as a possible reason for the block a misinterpreted report from security companies that modified versions of VLC have been used to spread malware. As a result of the blockage, Indian users may be using other, less reliable sources to download VLC. Traffic to Videolan’s site fell by 20 percent due to the blockade. About 10 percent of VLC’s global users are Indian.
