New Delhi: The central government on Thursday issued ordes to internet companies to block 67 pornographic websites in the country following the court orders with respect to the new IT rules issued in 2021.

According to reports, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has sent email to internet service providers asking them to block 63 pornographic websites based on the order of a Pune court, and block 4 websites based on the order of the Uttarakhand High Court and directions issued by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY).

According to the order, the websites have been banned under the new IT Rules 2021 which bans content that “shows such individual in full or partial nudity or shows or depicts such individual in any sexual act or conduct”.

“MeitY in compliance of the said (Uttarakhand High court) order read along with rule 3(2)(b) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, and in view of certain obscene material available in the below mentioned website that tarnish the image of modesty of women, has directed to immediately take down (block) the … websites/URLs,” the DoT order dated September 24 said, reports news agency PTI.

IT companies, according to the IT Rules 2021 invoked by MeitY, are mandated to remove or disable access to content hosted, stored or published by them which “shows such individual in full or partial nudity or shows or depicts such individual in any sexual act or conduct” and also content which is allegedly impersonated or artificially morphed.

In 2018, the government had banned around 827 porn websites following orders from the Uttarakhand High Court. And, with the recent development, now close to 900 pornographic websites are banned in India.