TSpolice.com is a porn site!

In a major embarrassment to Telangana Police, a website by the name tspolice.com directs users to explicit adult content. It’s just a mere coincidence that the abbreviation of Telangana State (TS) coincides with the Transsexual (TS) content of the website. The website however has sent the State Government into a tizzy and has requested the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to issue directions to all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block the porn site.

• Telangana State (TS) ‘embarrassed’ by website
• ISPs lack logistical capacity, infrastructure to identify and block porn websites

“Despite the orders, private ISPs like Bharti Airtel Ltd and Tata Communications are yet to block the website,” say police sources. The State Police’s official sites www.tspolice.org and www.tspolice.gov.in directs the user to state police department or to a page pertaining to district police department. The ‘objectionable’ material on tspolice.com, which put the state police in a clumsy situation, is yet to wake up from the slumber of banking on ISPs to filter objectionable material being transmitted through the web in the state.

ISPs and DoT, which are given the job to block porn sites by the government, are facing a tough time. They cite that without infrastructural support from the government, blocking such content is not possible. “Mass blocking of these sites will definitely slow down the internet access, as it happened umpteen times in the past,” they claim. The government initially thought of putting a complete ban on all porn sites. However IT officials quickly realised that blocking sites, which was taken up in China, was not possible in the State.

So the IT Department requested DoT and ISPs to identify porn sites and ban them in Telangana. “We are in constant touch with the DoT and ISPs to ban such objectionable sites and have sought their advice and support,” an official in the IT Department said adding that they are doubtful that the DoT and ISP would oblige their request because they lack logistical capacity and infrastructure to identify the porn sites.

However technical experts mentioned that to some extent web filters can be used on portals containing adult content. Filtering should be technologically powerful that makes difficult to access than merely asking 'entry-level' questions like, ‘Are you 18?’ According to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (ICERT), there are more than 40 million porn websites around the world and most of them operate outside India where porn is legal.

The action of blocking porn sites will, however, need the approval of both Union Home Ministry and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, but the State Government officials are optimistic. "It is a policy decision and we will wait for an approval from the Union Ministry to implement it," a senior officer of Cyberabad (Cyber Crimes) said. Despite umpteen attempts to contact IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan, the officer was not available for comments.

By:Victor Rao