New Delhi: The Indian government has decided to lift the ban on the VLC Media Player after being banned for almost nine months in the country. The Indian government had prohibited the free and popular VLC Media in India. Internet Freedom Foundation on Twitter informed about the Indian government decision to remove the ban on the website of VLC media player. The news was confirmed by VideoLAN on its official Twitter handle and said awesome work from Internet freedom foundation.
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VICTORY @GoI_MeitY has decided to remove its ban on the website of VLC media player. IFF provided legal support to @videolan throughout this process. (1/3)#WhatTheBlock pic.twitter.com/pW7APDAbIX
— Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) November 14, 2022
The Internet Freedom Foundation provided legal support to VideoLAN in its quest to get the ban lifted in India.
If you are unable to access https://t.co/ssjacu9U2j, write to us with the details of your ISP. (2/3)
— Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) November 14, 2022
Why did Indian government ban VLC in India?
Indian government hasn’t clarified the reason as to what led to this ban. However, some reports suggest that the government had banned the app as it was being used by China-backed hacking group ‘Cicada’ for cyber-attacks in India.
Awesome work from @internetfreedom, if you are india, you should support them! https://t.co/NsuBTW6S7F
— VideoLAN (@videolan) November 14, 2022
However, the VLC Media Player developer, VideoLAN, had refuted those reports at the time saying that Cicada hackers used a modified version of the VLC Media Player for the purpose and not the one available on official Microsoft, Google and Apple Stores.