The Indian government has decided to lift the ban on VLC media player after it was banned in the country for almost nine months. The Indian government had banned the free and popular VLC media in India. The Internet Freedom Foundation tweeted about the Indian government’s decision to lift the ban on the VLC Media Player website. The news was confirmed by VideoLAN on its official Twitter handle, saying the great work of the Internet Freedom Foundation.
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VICTORY @GoI_MeitY has decided to lift the ban on the VLC Media Player website. IFF provided legal support for @videolan during 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 bid to have the ban lifted in India.
If you cannot access https://t.co/ssjacu9U2j, write to us with your ISP details. (2/3)
— Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) November 14, 2022
Why has the Indian government banned VLC in India?
The Indian government has not clarified the reason for this ban. However, some reports suggest that the government had banned the app as it was used by China-backed hacker group Cicada for cyberattacks in India.
Great work by @Internetfreedom, if you are India you should support them! https://t.co/NsuBTW6S7F — VideoLAN (@videolan) November 14, 2022
However, the developer of the VLC media player, VideoLAN, had refuted those reports at the time, arguing that Cicada hackers used a modified version of the VLC media player for this purpose, and not the ones listed in the official Microsoft, Google, and Apple stores is available.