information technology act (it act)

The Delhi High Court on 23 June blocked 472 websites, but later updated its John Doe order to only block 219 websites, for alleged copyright violation, reported Medianama. The order, which came on the complaint of FIFA 2014 broadcasting rights owner Multi Screen Media, was only implemented in July.

Multi Screen Media instructed advocate Sai Krishna Rajagopal who drafted in senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Akhil Sibal, according to Quartz India. It contended that by allegedly live streaming FIFA online not only were those sites violating its copyright but were also causing tax losses to the Indian government.

The sites blocked include URL shorteners, file storage sites, services for emailing large files, audio files site Wapsip, Telugu content download sites and cartoon sites. Medianama added that the fact that URL shorteners and Google Docs are on the blocking list indicates that the court has not checked every site it has ordered to be blocked, though Quartz added that Google Docs has not been blocked in India.

In August 2012, the Ministry of Communications had similarly blocked 100s of URLs.