HRF maintains that governments should not ban apps or content without an independent court finding the block necessary and proportionate under international human rights standards. Anything less is plain censorship.
India is a party to the ICCPR, which protects free expression under Article 19. UN bodies have repeatedly warned that India’s blocking practices arbitrarily restrict that right. Yet, the Indian government keeps issuing blocking orders. In that context, companies should subject them to heightened scrutiny, not blindly follow them.
We’ve seen this before. HRF, through its hosting provider, received a geo-blocking demand from Russia’s Roskomnadzor that cited neither a legal basis nor any specific content allegedly violating Russian law. We said then, and we say it now: freedom should not be limited on the basis of vague, unverified demands.
