India unblocks VLC Player website videolan.org | Hacker News Reader

India unblocks VLC Player website videolan.org

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146 pointsBrajeshwar22 comments

Yay, I (president of VideoLAN), with the help of IFF, managed to get the Indian Minister to remove this block.

It's pretty obvious that this was a mistake on their side, but it tooooook a long time to go around bureaucracy.

IFF is the Internet Freedom Foundation. I encourage Indian citizens to donate to them: https://internetfreedom.in/donate/

Just want to say thanks for providing an incredibly useful open source app with no ads or bundled crap. Much gratitude to you and your team!

Some official decided that blocking the official source for a popular video player was the smart response to a malware-infected fake variant being in circulation.

No major firings have made the news, so we can only assume this official continues to direct policy, unburdened by sentience.

There will never be any firings, government jobs in India are very different to those of the US. Best case, someone sues the government in supreme court, and they lay out some guidelines/bounds for the concerned department/ministry against doing such things in the future.

Even then, the government could pull such things off again easily in the name of national security. Just look at how we blocked Chinese apps in the wake of Galwan valley clashes of 2020.

Government jobs in the US are very hard to get fired from. You have to actually commit a crime, have a history of gross negligence, or just make a big enough mistake during a probationary period to get fired. Appointed positions are probably the easiest to get fired from as the executive can just dismiss you although a forced resignation is more likely to happen. These jobs also have a lot of long term security so they are hard to get and are sometimes only open for current government employees. The downside is that they pay less than a corporate job but that's fine for some people who just want indefinite tenures.

Literally anyone can approach a state High Court and obtain a blocking order on any pretext.

They block first and ask questions later.

This has been a problem for years.

There is no indication that this was the reason for the block, is there?

The speculation I've seen on the other thread (linked below) seems to be mostly either "probably caught up in some pirate site takedowns" or "nobody knows, stop trying to guess, the government doesn't make sense and is run by monkeys" (the monkeys being their words, not mine).

Hahaha, its funny you expect somebody to be fired over this. People don't get fired for murders, unless of course there is a public and political outrage, till then nothing happens.

You do understand this is purely speculation, do you?

India has never, ever explained its blocking of videolan.org. Only spurious remarks were made by government officials, mostly from agencies that weren't involved in the blocking.

Tweet from VLC's handle:

https://twitter.com/videolan/status/1592097148472274945

What really concerns me is that India blocked Videolan.org without explanation and still hasn't explained its rationale for doing so.

A country which prides itself on being a democracy should at least explain its actions, especially when these actions adversely affect millions of people.

My understanding is that India is an "Election Democracy".

Yes, elections happen in India. Some of them are even done in a fair manner.

But outside of elections, first world democracy is non-existent.

I believe they started out with the intention of becoming a true democracy.

However, somewhere along the way politicians came to the conclusion that democracy is a merely nuisance and only pay lip service to it.

Democracy also means transparency and that would thrust their corruption into the light, which they can't allow.

For those that missed it:

https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/17/vlc-india/

https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/04/vlc-developer-videolan-sen...

https://internetfreedom.in/videolan-issued-legal-notice-to-d... .

First time I am hearing it was blocked. I bought a new phone and laptop couple months ago and I have VLC installed on both (one is Android and the other is Windows). Anyway, if it's unblocked now, that's good news.

See this discussion (includes comment by President of VideoLAN) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32441911

Just one of the sides. Sadly the president of India doesn't seem interested responding. Nevertheless I'm sure many government agencies of India use VLC.

They should sue. India over stepped. Just like the US has over stepped with TornadoCash

Yeah India doesn’t work like that. Most of the world doesn’t work like that.

The US just sanctioned TornadoCash's involvement with the US financial system, not from the internet.

Have they really ever been known to have Internet etiquette?

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indian-government-withdr...

And the yestercentury-types in the US forgot that it was the 21st century with all the bickering about old news.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com