Blocking of URLs jumped by nearly 20 times in five years, says government

NEW DELHI: The blocking of URLs by the government surged by nearly 20 times between the year 2015 and 2020. The number of blocked URLs was 500 in 2015, while it crossed 9,800 in 2020, Sanjay Dhotre, minister of state for the IT Ministry, informed Parliament on Wednesday.

The information by the Ministry of IT has come at a time when debate on censorship on social media contents is at its peak. “The government has directed for blocking of 500, 633, 1,385, 2,799, 3,635 and 9,849 number of URLs during the years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively under the provision of section 69A of the IT Act, 2000,” he said in a written reply before the Lok Sabha.