VLC Media Player’s long-standing ban is in the news again as several news organisations reported on the six-month ban recently. Medianama covered the ban nearly two months ago, and it seems like the situation has not changed since then. The shadow ban has not gone down well with VideoLAN, the project behind the open software. which revealed that the website has been down since February 13, 2022 in a tweet. https://twitter.com/videolan/status/1558191323034914819 Why it matters: The ban highlights the nebulous manner in which websites and softwares are blocked by the Indian government. It also underscores the need for accountability from the government as website owners have no clarity on how to challenge these orders. https://twitter.com/videolan/status/1558489056996122625 Why is VLC banned in India: The Union government remains tight-lipped about the reasons behind the ban so there is no official word yet. Medianama had filed an RTI (Right to Information) application on May 19 to understand why the software was banned in the country but the government feigned ignorance by claiming that they did not have any information regarding the website. Furthermore, similar applications have been filed by the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC) and Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) to no avail. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued the same boilerplate response to their queries as it did to Medianama. IFF has now appealed the order arguing that it is “illegal and demonstrates non-application of mind”. It remains to be seen whether anything comes off this appeal as one of the…
